Keep the Murals Alive

UPDATE: The new mural is up and protected. The Divine and Bettie murals have been resorted and protected. We have cameras all around the house now. Sadly, it’s not enough to convince Liberty Insurance (through Safeco) to continue our coverage. We offered to exclude vandalism or pay a higher deductible and they still refused. Worse, we fear we’ve been blackballed by the entire home insurance industry. So unfortunately, this GoFundMe is now a Mural Slush Fund account. This is honestly the worst part because it’s not like WE ASKED FOR THIS. We would have been perfectly happy living our lives free of vandalism. They were the ones who decided how much money to give us for this. And now we won’t be covered for anything including flood and fire. That’s pretty scary. We know insurance companies are for profit businesses first and foremost, but to refuse to cover us for ANYTHING feels cruel and almost like they’re siding WITH the vandals. ORIGINAL POST:We’re raising funds to restore the unprotected Britney Spears/Laura Palmer mural by Two Thangs that was destroyed. Any donations over the goal will go to support the LGBTQ Youth organisation at Lambert House. The Whole Story: On May 27th at 12:18 am, an organized group of hatemongers took a high-powered paint canister to our house and sprayed the 3 sides they could reach with a shade we like to call “Hate Crime Red”. It was the end of June 2021 when we woke to the sounds of someone throwing glass ornaments filled with red paint of an identical shade and viscosity at our beloved mural. These were definitely not “some feminists” from the 2016 incident, but something more insidious. It felt violent and hateful, as opposed to misinformed, or juvenile. Two Thangs, the artist who originally restored Bettie and added Divine, flew out from the east coat to fix his beautiful work and add a graffiti-proof layer of protection. With the help of Two Thangs, All-Phase Painting, a local artist - Scott Mexcal, and the community, we brought back the ladies and added a pop of color to the rest of our house. We also added a mural on our shed (a mashup of Britney Spears and Laura Palmer), also painted by Two Thangs and Mexcal. At the time, Britney had yet to be released from her oppressive conservator ship. Both Britney and the Twin Peaks character Laura Palmer are victims of abuse at the hands of their patriarchs. We loved collaborating with Two Thangs to create art that showed support for her plight and others who suffer similar abuse outside of the collective consciousness. We put in a ring camera and enjoyed a blissfully uneventful two years away from art vandalism. We’ve only ever received compliments about the art on our house. No one has ever approached us with complaints. But there is an increasingly vocal group of people who are threatened by women and the queer community. We are certain this same group from 2021 returned to escalate their attack. The red paint is their calling card. The timing is also not a coincidence. It’s almost Pride month and LGBTQ rights are under attack across the country, even in Blue Seattle. Divine was a fearless drag queen, and Bettie Page embodied autonomous female sexuality. Thanks to Two Thangs’ foresight, we will be  able to clean Divine and Bettie. The Britney/Laura mashup is ruined. This isn’t just some kids messing around. It’s a hateful, organized group and they want us to be afraid to express ourselves. They gave a special blast of paint to the inside of the free community pantry we have on our property. These people hate women, the LGBTQ community, and apparently, helping the food insecure. But we will keep restoring, making it a little better every time. We’ll meet more and more people in our community who stand for the inclusive values and mutual aid, and turn their crappy little plot into something good. Something they would hate.