Insulting. Ignorant. Idiotic. Three words which come to mind after witnessing this image, in a local public toilet. Britain prides itself on being the forefront of an urban regeneration. Knowing this, it may be expected that modern ideas come with that. Contrary to what you may have thought, it seems that the young people of Croydon are perhaps not as accepting of property or of the LGBTQ+ community as we may have thought- assuming of course this was the work of young people.

 Last week I was in a local public convenience and was dismayed to find the kind of insulting inscriptions I thought had died with the 80’s.  “Sarah and Anna are gay” the writer announced. A juvenile and deeply concerning response; “Kill yourselves! [Your] not normal. You don’t deserve to live. You freak.” This comment bothered me for two reasons. One, despite the government’s attempts to improve rates of literacy for people of my generation, the person who wrote this was clearly outsmarted by an apostrophe and used the incorrect form of ‘your’. If you’re trying to make a point powerful; at least punctuate it correctly. Two, I was dismayed by the fact that it’s 2017 and there are still people out there who have so much resentment for the LGBTQ+ community.  

After seeing this image Maddy and Eleanor, young members of the LGBTQ+ community said that “this kind of homophobia is never justified, to not only feel as though someone doesn’t deserve to live, but to express this in such an aggressive is completely wrong.”

What can we do to counter such minor acts of vandalism and prejudice?

Come on Croydon, you can do better!