BUFFALO, N.Y. — The owner of an Allentown bar reached out to 2 On Your Side after a mural celebrating the LGBTQ+ community was vandalized this week.
It happened just before 5 on Tuesday morning, and the owner of the bar has a video of the people who did it.
"It was a few punks standing on the garbage cans. Clearly, their artists' integrity is just starting out because it was not a very good graffiti tag," says artist Mickey Harmon.
Mickey Harmon is one of the artists who created the mural at 44 Allen Street, home to Edison's Proof and Provision.
"I'm a pen and ink artist, but also a painter. This was my first mural, and Ari Moore is a local historian and painter, and she came into my shop one day and said we need a queer mural, and this mural was erected just six months later," said Mickey Harmon.
The "Stonewall Nation: WNY LGBT History Mural" is part of the Buffalo AKG's public art initiative, and it celebrates and recognizes key local and national figures in the push for LGBTQ+ rights.
The mural means a lot to members of the community.
"Seeing things like this going on in the City of Buffalo, specifically as a person of color, a person of Hispanic descent, a gay man with a disability in Buffalo, this is a representation of us, and to be, to see it being destroyed for no reason, just because people feel that it's not part of what they believe, it's incredible," said activist Erick Vazquez.
"The Albright-Knox and their public art initiative are very proactive with communities that they serve and the spaces that they create, so within a few hours, I was talking to them and next week, I myself will be repairing the mural," said Mickey Harmon. "If I saw the four, the four punks that did this, I would just, I would not be mad with them, I would not scold them, I wouldn't even get them arrested. I would just briefly explain to them the significance of the history here in Allentown and how the rights that they walk around with today, were fought hard by the people on this wall."
If you know anything about what happened, or if you have surveillance video for Buffalo Police, they want you to give them a call at 716-847-2255.