CHICAGO — Erica Hungerford and Peter Charnley’s garage is not just any garage. For months, it’s been the repeat target of political vandalism that has damaged the couple’s Jefferson Park neighborhood home. But now, the defaced garage has newly embellished bright rainbow colors with a large mural reading, “Love Wins.” For them, their garage is now a symbol of their community’s creativity and support.
Since May, the homeowners say they have experienced five separate incidents of anti-LGBTQ harassment. In the latest incident, an unidentified individual spray-painted “MA” across their garage. Due to past vandalism with MAGA-related messaging, they believe the person intended to write “MAGA” but ran out of paint.
In response, about a dozen neighbors, friends and community members gathered Sunday to paint over discriminatory messages with colorful, LGBTQ pride-inspired artwork.
“I am heartened by the support from everybody, having the community support has been amazing,” Hungerford said. “I am still astonished at the number of people who wanted to help.”
Megan Dunning, 43, brought her son and daughter to the couple’s home to help with the project. She has lived in the area for the past six years and said the incidents are uncharacteristic of Jefferson Park, which is typically “very welcoming.”
“This vandalism seems very out of character for the neighborhood,” Dunning said. “This community supports their LGBTQ neighbors. Everyone should be welcomed. We’re not going to tolerate hate.”
The first time the harassment occurred was back in May, a time when the couple had not installed any security cameras at the house, Hungerford said. Around Memorial Day, the couple found their Progress Pride flag, which stood on the home’s front porch, cut up.
Hungerford said the person responsible would have needed to move their Michigan flag out of the way to reach the Pride flag, so she believes the act was deliberately targeted at the LGBTQ pride symbol.
“We went out one morning and noticed that the queer flag had been cut in half, and Michigan flag had been avoided,” Hungerford said.
The couple decided to go to the police and file a report.
“Initially, we thought it was some teenagers being stupid the first time, but on the off chance that if somebody does something again, I wanted to have a record of it,” Hungerford said.
The second incident came roughly two months later, in early July. By that time, the pair had set up a Ring doorbell camera. Surveillance footage caught an individual cutting up a second Pride flag they hung.
By the next month, additional cameras they installed recorded a person walking up to their porch and leaving a banana with the word “Republic” written on the peel. The person also placed a “Let’s Go Brandon” sticker, a derogatory term used in conservative circles to insult President Biden, on their garage. The sticker contained handwritten messages, including “Bidens Clintons for jail” and “Obama for prison.”
In a fourth incident in September, Hungerford and Charnley found the words “I heart MAGA” spray-painted on their garage.
“We did not have video footage of that because we didn’t have video cameras up there,” Hungerford said. “We’ve rectified that.”
The most recent incident happened this month. The individual was caught by cameras spray-painting their Pride flag — which they have now replaced several times.
The couple had placed the flag on a higher flagpole to make it more difficult to reach. However, the individual was still able to launch orange paint all over the flag. In the process, whether from wind or otherwise, Hungerford said the incident left splatters of paint on their gutters, front awning and porch
The couple also found a second banana with “Impeach Biden” inscribed on one side and “Hack Harris” on the other side. This person also spray-painted “MA” on the garage.
The couple believes the harassment is coming from the same person.
“It’s stressful, it’s anxiety inducing, it’s infuriating,” Hungerford said. “I’m glad that we are able to not back down. At this point, I have extra Pride flags at the house, so the same day that he vandalizes a flag, I go out and put another one out there because I’m not going to let him intimidate me.”
To bring greater awareness of the continued harassment, Hungerford wrote about her experience in a social media post on Jefferson Park Forward, a neighborhood Facebook group.
The couple said they have also talked to dozens of neighbors. While not new to the Chicago area, Hungerford and Charnley had only moved into their Jefferson Park home this past February, so they were looking to gain more insights from those who live nearby.
“Everyone we’ve talked to has been super supportive,” Charnley said. “They’ve all expressed concern like, ‘Why is this happening?’ It doesn’t make sense. Our neighborhood isn’t normally like this.”
Now those around the couple, including Rogers Park resident Megan Fletcher, are helping the couple fight back ― but not with the anger or hate they have encountered. Rather, Fletcher said the couple is “compassionate” and “intelligent,” and so has been their response.
“I saw their posts on Facebook, and it really breaks my heart,” Fletcher said. “I’m a member of the LGBT community, and I thought that this is a really great response to someone being so brazenly bigoted to people who were really not doing anything to them. I like that there’s a response that is beautiful and kind.”
Hungerford said even strangers came by to help with the painting, adding that the event became more than she could have imagined.
For her, perhaps the most surprising outcome of the incidents is a phone call they received from Mayor Lori Lightfoot last Friday, where she expressed her support.
The mayor has since posted a statement about the issue on social media.
“I am outraged that this family has endured this hateful and bigoted attack. As a proud member of the LGBTQ community, I cannot help but put myself and my family in the shoes of this family who has been the subject of biased, hateful, and cowardly acts,” the Twitter post read.
Hungerford said the initial response of authorities was not what they hoped, saying the Police Department had indicated they were limited in what they could do.
However, Hungerford and Charnley have since seen an influx of support. An officer has stopped by their home to examine their surveillance footage. They spoke with an officer from the city law department’s Troubled Buildings Unit. Charnley also had a conversation with Ald. Jim Gardiner, 45th, about their experience this past week.
LGBTQ liaisons at the Chicago Police Department have also been working with the couple on the case. Some of those officers, along with a social worker, volunteered on Sunday to help with the painting. The department published a Facebook post condemning the harassment and shared photos of the officers painting the mural.
“Hate has no place in Chicago. Our LGBTQ+ liaison officers joined residents in the 16th District to stand against this hate and support the diversity that makes us stronger,” the post read.
The post also identified the offender as male. A CPD spokesperson confirmed the department has five incident reports for that location, all for criminal damage to property.
For Dawn Valenti, who has worked as a victim advocate in Chicago for 15 years, it was troubling to learn about the anti-LGBTQ harassment.
She is also troubled by the targeting of a couple who she said “aren’t hurting anybody.”
“They just seem like great people, you know, loves love kind of people,” Valenti said.
Valenti felt she had to do something, so she decided to help out with the painting to show her support for the LGBTQ community, as well as Hungerford and Charnley.
“I think this is the most Prideful house in the city,” Valenti said. “Everywhere you look, from the tree to the flag to the canopy, to the garage to the side of the garage. Everything says Pride. This hopefully shows this person, especially the mural, that love wins. That’s what it’s about. It’s about love and just loving each other.”
Hungerford and Charnley are hopeful the public can help identify the person behind the harassment. Over time, patterns have emerged. The incidents usually happen between 2 and 5 a.m. on Friday or Saturday. The individual also tends to wear the same outfit, which Hungerford describes as a zip-up white rain jacket, gray bandanna and sweatpants.
“We just want to catch the guy,” Hungerford said. “We just want to catch him so that he can be appropriately prosecuted.”
As for Hungerford and Charnley, they feel hopeful that their message of positivity surpasses the hate they’ve experienced. With their Pride flag still flying proudly across the front of their home and a new, “beautiful” mural, Hungerford said she is overwhelmed by the support she has received.
“I’m hopeful that sends a message to this guy that the community is behind us and not behind him,” Hungerford said.
