Anti-gay graffiti at popular Mich. campground sparks concern

With only weeks to go before the summer travel season, anti-gay graffiti at a popular campground in Saugatuck, Mich., has sparked concern far beyond the popular lakeside town.

Vandals scrawled graffiti that read "Fags don't belong" next to a swastika on a fence at the 33-acre Campit Outdoor Resort last month. Campit co-owner Sally Howard described the incident as "isolated." She said anti-gay harassment or attacks are unprecedented; and she knew of no other incidents in the 10 years she has owned the campground and lived in the area.

"The graffiti didn't feel targeted to me and does not reflect how everybody feels about the place," Howard told EDGE. "We are a group of people welcome in this township. We've been here for a long time and never seen anything like this."

She said Campit plans to open next Friday, April 16, as scheduled. Howard attributed the vandalism to bored teenagers taking advantage of mild spring weather in the popular summer destination, which is roughly two hours east of Chicago on the southeast shore of Lake Michigan. The campground has hired security guards to monitor the property's main gates on weekends. And local residents have also been put on alert.

"I understand that people are a little bit nervous, but we take our guests' security and safety seriously," Howard added. "Everyone living around us is on the lookout and thinking about it, so if anyone tries anything similar like this again, they won't succeed."

While Howard moves to replace the destroyed panels--even a power washer used on the soft wood could not remove the painted message--and install additional gating to further ensure guests' safety. The graffiti itself will eventually fade away, but its underlying anti-gay message will remain. And it begs the question: will the increasingly divisive, angry and even hateful rhetoric towards LGBTs and other underrepresented groups that has increasingly dominated the country's political discourse in recent months trickle down to other gay-friendly destinations during the upcoming summer travel season?

Bob Sanborn, director of tourism in Provincetown, Mass. doesn't think so. He said the town has never experienced anything resembling the recent graffiti incident in Saugatuck. Provincetown officially enacted a "zero-tolerance policy" towards bias incidents and crimes nearly two decades ago.

"All public officials are on record that everyone is welcome here, and that there is "no place for hate" in Provincetown," Sanborn told EDGE. "We will vigorously embrace [our zero-tolerance] policy when necessary."

Though 21 incidents were reported in Provincetown in 1991, just before the policy was enacted, only one incident has occurred in recent history. Eric Patten received a 30-day prison sentence and two years probation after his conviction for assaulting and verbally harassing a woman he reportedly mistook for a gay man outside the Post Office Cafe & Cabaret last May.

Other isolated incidents have occurred in Key West, Fla., and Palm Springs, Calif., but allegations against law enforcement officials who target gay men are more common. National Parks Service rangers on Fire Island, N.Y., came under fire in June 2008 after they cited six men for disorderly conduct inside a popular cruising area between Cherry Grove and the Fire Island Pines known as the Meatrack.

While the rangers insisted it was their duty to respond to the illegal activity they observed, some residents--in addition to many gay bloggers and journalists--felt otherwise.

"It's absolutely frustrating," one Pines resident told EDGE. "This is an adult island. This is an island about non-censorship. People want to be free."

Two Miami Beach police officers faced anti-gay harassment allegations earlier this year after they arrested a man in a local park in March 2009. And similar anti-cruising crackdowns have also been reported in Los Angeles.

Robert Rosenwald, director of the ACLU of Florida's LGBT Advocacy Project, described the Miami Beach incident as indicative of the long-standing tension between law enforcement and the area's gay visitors.

"This is a problem that's been going on for years and we've been looking for a case to challenge it for a long time," Rosenwald told EDGE in the original story. "Officers have been making things up, trumping up charges and beating them. I think Miami Beach needs to face the fact that it is not as gay-friendly as it needs to be."

The Miami Beach Police Department has since hired officers to act as liaisons between the MBPD and the city's LGBT residents. And back on Fire Island, there have been no further citations issued in the Meatrack.