Swastika sticker – Photo: Anchorage Police Department, via Facebook.
A tall, thin man wearing a hood and a mask was caught on security camera plastering stickers bearing the swastika symbol and the words “We Are Everywhere” on a gay bar in Anchorage, Alaska, as well as a local Jewish museum.
The black-and-white stickers were found at the main entrances of Mad Myrna’s a bar in downtown Anchorage, and the Alaska Jewish Museum earlier this week. Police received reports of the vandalism on Tuesday.
Security footage obtained by the Alaska Jewish Museum shows the unknown masked man driving a scooter to the museum, placing one sticker on the door and three on the windows, and then driving off, sometime around 2 a.m. on Tuesday. Forty-five minutes later, another sticker was placed on Mad Myrna’s front door, reports ABC News.
Anchorage police are asking the public to help identify the man seen in the security footage. If further stickers are found on other buildings, people are advised to leave them in place but call the police to report the incident.
“There is no place for hate in our community,” the police department said in a statement asking for the public’s help in identifying the vandal.
The Anchorage Police Department said it has partnered with the FBI for an investigation into the incidents.
“What that sticker symbolizes is hate,” Anchorage police spokesperson MJ Thim told The Associated Press. “And we’re not going to stand for it, and there’s no place for it. And we’re going to investigate it and figure out what this is all about.”
Thim said that to his knowledge, the stickers were the first of their kind to show up in Anchorage, although several businesses in Bellingham, Washington, reported similar incidents.
“Swastikas have also become a symbol of white supremacy and the far right, and actions like this disproportionately impact people of color in the LGBTQ community,” Laura Carpenter, the executive director of the LGBTQ organization Identity Inc., told Alaska Public Media.
“This is just another example of people trying to demonize the LGBTQ community and Jewish people,” Carpenter said, noting that both Jewish people and gay men were persecuted and killed under the Nazi regime during the Holocaust.
Both the museum and the bar have since hired private security to help monitor the premises.
Rabbi Yosef Greenberg, the president of the museum’s board of directors, said law enforcement has informed them the stickers are not part of any organized or serious threat.
“One guy got excited about something he read on the Internet and came and put [up] a sticker,” Greenberg said.
Mad Myrna’s largely brushed off the incident in a post on its Facebook page.
“While we will not be focusing or dwelling on the hateful sticker slapped on our door in the night, we do wish to thank everyone for the comments of love and support,” the post reads. “We love the community more than we can explain in a social media post, and truly hope that comes through in our nightly service.
“It hasn’t been an easy year,” the post continued, referring to the COVID-19 pandemic, “but seeing your smiles, hearing laughter and applause for our incredible performers, seeing the dance floor buzzing… it’s what drives us. Keep being your wonderful, funny, unique beautiful and loving selves and we will keep being us, giving you our best every night.
“Now: We are here. We are queer & we have some damn good chicken wings on special tonight.”
Gay adult film star Justin Heath Smith, better known by his alias Austin Wolf, has been sentenced to 19 years in prison after pleading guilty to enticing a minor to engage in illegal sexual activity.
The sentencing follows what prosecutors described as a "pattern of activity involving prohibited sexual conduct" that included seeking out sexual liaisons with minors and exchanging hundreds of child sexual abuse videos.
Wolf was arrested in 2024 on suspicion of using an anonymous Telegram account to exchange hundreds of videos containing child pornography with another individual whose phone was later seized and searched by the FBI.
The owners of Pink Pony, a new gay nightclub in Sydney, have apologized and vowed to change the club's name following backlash from the local LGBTQ community.
Kevin Du-Val and Michael Lewis — the owner and manager of the popular gay club Palms — had planned to open their new multi-level venue on Oxford Street, the main drag in Darlinghurst known for its vibrant LGBTQ nightlife, in early December.
But the club's name — which the owners said in a since-deleted social media post was "unashamedly inspired by its namesake song that resonates so profoundly within our community," referring to lesbian singer Chappell Roan's hit "Pink Pony Club" — sparked controversy after they described the type of patrons they hoped to attract, seemingly at the expense of others, according to 9News.
The Trump administration is reportedly planning to classify specific transgender suspects as "violent extremists," according to journalist Ken Klippenstein. Writing on his Substack, Klippenstein said two national security officials told him that the FBI intends to treat transgender suspects as a subset of the Bureau’s newly created "Nihilistic Violent Extremists" (NVE) category.
The NVE designation was created earlier this year to replace the Biden-era label "Anti-Authority and Anti-Government Violent Extremists" (AGAAVE), which had been used to categorize participants in the January 6 Capitol riot and other right-wing or anti-government groups.
These are challenging times for news organizations. And yet it’s crucial we stay active and provide vital resources and information to both our local readers and the world. So won’t you please take a moment and consider supporting Metro Weekly with a membership? For as little as $5 a month, you can help ensure Metro Weekly magazine and MetroWeekly.com remain free, viable resources as we provide the best, most diverse, culturally-resonant LGBTQ coverage in both the D.C. region and around the world. Memberships come with exclusive perks and discounts, your own personal digital delivery of each week’s magazine (and an archive), access to our Member's Lounge when it launches this fall, and exclusive members-only items like Metro Weekly Membership Mugs and Tote Bags! Check out all our membership levels here and please join us today!
You must be logged in to post a comment.