Flyers targeting gay pride flags left at Olympia businesses

OLYMPIA, Wash. - Police want to know who’s been posting flyers at businesses in downtown Olympia telling them to take down their gay pride flags.

And just days after the flyers went up, someone broke a window next to a rainbow flag.

“It was completely blown out,” said Kelli Tagles with Gatsby Parlour de Beaute. “It’s gut-wrenching to see this. We just replaced this window Sept 7th. It hasn’t even been a full month.”

Just days before the window was broken at the salon, someone posted a flyer right beside the Pride flag.

“It says ‘Attention: you are in violation of natural laws of decency. Please remove your gay flag from your business façade’.”

Police are looking to see if the broken window and flyer are connected.

“Because the notice was posted two days before [the] window was broken, I’ve been told they are looking at this incident as a premeditated hate crime,” said Tagles.

Several other businesses were also impacted by the flyers.

“I know Dillinger’s had one posted. I know the film society had one posted, and I heard yesterday the Washington Center had one posted as well,” said Tagles.

Kai Abrahamson is with capital city pride, which puts on the annual Pride Parade in Olympia. They took action as soon as they heard the news.

“It does come as a shock that something like this has happened,” said Abrahamson. “We put this fundraiser together, and we’ve raised over $1600 as of right now just as a show of support.”

That money will go to help replace the costly window broken at Gatsby.

“We’re so humbled and appreciative of everyone’s continued support,” said Tagles.

As police continue to investigate what happened here, Capitol City Pride is encouraging more businesses and more people to put up pride flags to show their support for the LGBTQ community.

Police are checking with nearby businesses to see if they have surveillance video of the people who left the flyers.

The Gatsby salon says this is the second time this year someone has broken their window. They say they won't let the attacks intimidate them.