Update June 16: Panti Bar owner Rory O’Neill says that there is CCTV of the incident which indicates this was a pre-planned act. The video will be handed over to Gardaí who have launched an investigation.
During the night on Sunday (June 13), a vandal spray-painted homophobic graffiti two doors down from the Pantibar. Tweeting this morning, Panti shows the horrible graffiti which reads “pedo bar” with an arrow pointing to the premises.
This was painted on the building two doors up from Pantibar during the night pic.twitter.com/HoBo9glOuP
— Dr Panti Bliss-Cabrera (@PantiBliss) June 14, 2021
The vandalism was painted onto the side of the Etsy building. While the CCTV from Pantibar might not catch the person responsible for the homophobic graffiti, it is hopeful that the Etsy CCTV might have caught something. Etsy has been notified.
GCN talked to Panti about the incident and she expressed disappointment saying “It was a bit gutting to wake up to this after such a fantastic reopening weekend, but it’s also a timely reminder of why Pride is still important. Queer Power!”
Unfortunately, this is not the first time that Pantibar has been subject to homophobic hate attacks. In 2018, during a busy night, a man in his late teens threw a brick through the window of Pantibar after posting on 4chan that he was “about to commit a hate crime.”
However, this is not getting the LGBTQ+ community down! There have been some lovely positive responses on Twitter with one user saying: “Add a strategic ‘S’ and another ‘e’ and could turn Speedo night into a thing.”
Another made mention of how welcoming and friendly the atmosphere of Pantibar is, saying that “a friendlier, warmer, more welcoming premises would be hard to find.”
GCN’s Managing Editor, Lisa Connell noted: “The graffiti beside Pantibar this morning and the destruction of flags in Waterford in the past week underscore the lived reality that LGBTQ+ folk know all too well; homophobia and transphobia are alive and well in Irish society. It is noteworthy that in a month where queer visibility is celebrated and amplified, we see these anti-LGBTQ+ displays of bigotry and intimidation. These act as a timely reminder of why we must loudly and proudly celebrate Pride.”
In a further update from Panti on social media, pictures and videos now show that the graffiti has already been painted over by DublinTown. As well as this, Pride flags are now hanging from the windows of the Etsy building in a show of solidarity with the LGBTQ+ community.
The graffiti I posted earlier was painted on our neighbor @Etsy's building.
Here's the before and after. Thank you Etsy! X ❤🌈✊️ pic.twitter.com/hosf8nXWkZ— Dr Panti Bliss-Cabrera (@PantiBliss) June 14, 2021
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