The Daily Caller has obtained two photographs from inside the Department of Labor (DOL) elevators where Obama administration employees have again defaced photos equating gay rights with civil rights.
A worker or group of workers in the DOL ripped off a portion of these posters that compared gay rights to African American civil rights.
Pictured prominently on the poster is Bayard Rustin, an openly gay civil rights advocate and labor leader. Next to Rustin’s photo is a quote from him: “To be afraid is to behave as if the truth were not true.”
Underneath Rustin’s quote is a description of him: “Bayard Rustin — a labor leader, civil rights advocate and openly gay man — paved the way for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people to make their own unique contributions to the world of work, the U.S. Department of Labor, our country and the world.”
On both of the photographs with vandalized posters, Rustin’s quote and descriptions are torn from them. For the vandals to reach the posters, they had to break into a locked display case as evident in the photographs.
A Department of Labor spokeswoman did not immediately respond to TheDC’s requests for comment, but this isn’t the Obama administration’s first experience when it comes to vandalized posters promoting gay rights. Back in June 2009, a similar defacing streak occurred.
Labor Secretary Hilda Solis was apparently furious then. According to The New York Times, Solis shot off an email to DOL staffers deploring the vandalism.
“It appears, however, that some members of the Labor Department team have a different view, as it has come to my attention that most of the posters have been continually defaced or removed,” Solis wrote then. “On several occasions, even the poster frames have been torn completely off the elevator walls. I do not believe these actions represent the majority of our employees, so I refuse to let this situation define us.”
See two of the vandalized posters:
