Crossbreed billboard torn down in 'act of queerphobia'

A billboard for London-based queer party Crossbreed has been vandalised in an alleged act of queerphobia.

On Wednesday, February 16 at 5.44:PM, a person on a bicycle tore down the billboard underneath a bridge in Shoreditch outside events space Kachette.

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In footage acquired by Crossbreed, a person can be seen unmounting from their bicycle and proceeding to rip the poster off from the wall using a box cutter.

Earlier this week Crossbreed announced these billboards, that featured the slogan "we believe in a queer utopia," as its first large scale party promotion, which have been erected in London.

Footage of this incident, with the suspect's face blurred out, was posted by Crossbreed onto its Instagram page.

The organisers stated that they wanted to remind people that "queerphobia is on the rise".

They wrote: "On Wednesday our new Billboard was slashed and torn down by a person on a bicycle. It had been up less than 48 hours.

"If any of us needed a reminder, queerphobia is on the rise; in the last 5 years, reports of transphobic hate crime has quadrupled, while ‘respected’ institutions like the Equalities and Human Rights Commission are actively working to undermine our right to use a bathroom. These attacks from institutions bolster and legitimise the violence we face from hateful individuals like this.

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"We’ve thought hard about how to deal with this attack, and we’ve spoken about it as a team at length. The billboard seemed like a significant milestone for us and the message [was] important. To have it slashed down left us devastated - and reminded us that there are people out there who don’t want us to exist now or in the future.

"Our upset and fear of what further harm this person might be capable of, drove our desire to share the video in its raw format. We wanted to find them, to engage them in conversation and to change their mind. We want them to see us how we see us. But we also realise that we have a significant social media following, one that could cause serious harm.

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"Ultimately, we don’t know this person’s circumstances and this did not feel like a proportionate action to take. We are not interested in revenge or punitive justice but when their face is posted and shared, we lose control of that.

"We know how far off we are from living in a Queer Utopia, our message is one of hope, change and of solidarity with one another."

They also wanted to use this opportunity to call on "cis and straight attendees" to support queer organisers and to go to Transgender Action Block's protest at Parliament Square on February 21.

Aneesa Ahmed is Mixmag's Digital Intern, follow her on Twitter