Recent vandalism won’t erase LGBTQ2S+ community in central Newfoundland: advocate

A pride flag is photographed during a Pride flag raising ceremony in Saskatoon on Thursday, June 1, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Heywood Yu

ST. JOHN’S — An advocate in central Newfoundland says the LGBTQ2S+ community is standing tall despite recent vandalism appearing to target a rainbow crosswalk and Pride flag.

Lexi MacDonald with Pride Grand Falls-Windsor says the vandalism reflects a crisis of empathy, but that LGBTQ2S+ people in central Newfoundland “are not going anywhere.”

RCMP say a rainbow crosswalk in front of a school in Botwood, N.L., about 35 kilometres northeast of Grand Falls-Windsor, was vandalized with spray paint earlier this week.

Meanwhile, Natalie Smith says someone shot out a window in her Grand Falls-Windsor gift shop last month for the second time in two years.

Smith says anti-LGBTQ2S+ hate is on the rise and she believes whoever did it may have been targeting the large rainbow Pride flag hanging in the window.

Smith says members of the local and provincial governments must speak out about what has happened.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 5, 2025.

The Canadian Press