Authorities have not linked the vandalism at First Unitarian Universalist Church of New Orleans to their public town hall event addressing violence against transgender people two days earlier, but the timing has some people wondering if this was a response to the community’s support of the vulnerable among them.
A stained-glass window at the First Unitarian Universalist Church of New Orleans was partially shattered by a brick during worship service Sunday morning (March 12), according to several members of the church.
The incident happened less than 48 hours after First Unitarian hosted a well-attended and well-publicized town hall meeting on violence against transgender people in the New Orleans area.
Rev. Paul Beedle, the minister of First Unitarian, said no one was injured by the brick or the broken glass. A congregant discovered the shattered window while walking in the church’s Memorial Hall as service was underway, he said. …
In a statement Sunday night, NOPD spokesman Aaron Looney said, “At this time, we do not have evidence that would link the simple criminal damage to property incident today with Friday’s event.”
Still, the timing caused some to see a connection. The church posted on its Facebook page Sunday afternoon:
This morning during our worship service, someone threw a brick through a panel of the Katrina window. We think it might be in reaction to the Town Hall meeting we hosted on Friday afternoon, organized by Transitions Louisiana, on Violence Against Transgender People. If so, it does not affect our commitment to stand by our transgender neighbors, and all our neighbors who are marginalized or targeted by systems of oppression.
In the early 19th century, a Universalist minister in Boston named John Murray was preaching his message of universal salvation, and there came a brick through the church window. He walked over and picked it up, held it high and said, “This argument is solid, and weighty, but it is neither rational, nor convincing.” So say we today.
The town hall meeting was called as a response to two murders in two days of transgender women in the city.
Read more at nola.com
Photo via First Unitarian Universalist Church of New Orleans on Facebook