WASHINGTON — Sapol Jirapanjavat and his wife discovered a message, in blue spray paint, on Sunday just outside their restaurant Thaiphoon on S Street Northwest near Dupont Circle.
The graffiti on the sidewalk read “down with the gay agenda.”
Jirapanjavat has owned the restaurant for two years and said at first, he didn’t understand what the message meant, until a passer-by helped him understand.
“She told me that it was called anti-gay, and that is serious,” Jirapanjavat said.
The owner believes the restaurant may have been targeted because rainbow-colored bunting was hung days before in honor of pride month. Jirapanjavat tried to remove the message with paint thinner, but the technique didn’t work and he was forced to open with the message outside the door.
Sometime Sunday night into Monday morning, Jirapanjavat says someone else came and used red spray paint to turn it into an anti-gun message, by painting the word “gun” over the word “gay.”
As for the business owner, he says the second person with spray paint should have waited for the police to come out.
“This is not good, this is not like gentleman or ladies,” Jirapanjavat said.
D.C. police are investigating the graffiti.
