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Anti-gay message turned anti-gun appears in spray paint outside DC restaurant

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.

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Several days after an arbitrator ordered the Washington Post to reinstate fired opinion writer Karen Attiah, she told СÂÜÀòÓ°ÊÓ she's still hasn't gotten a phone call about returning to work. "I'm waiting to hear from the Washington Post as of this morning," Attiah said. "I'm willing to go back to the work that I was doing as a columnist and as a writer particularly focused on race, gender and international rights." A Thursday ruling by arbitrator Sarah Miller Espinosa said the newspaper did not have sufficient cause to fire Attiah over social media posts about violent white men following last year's killing of Charlie Kirk, and ordered the Post to award Attiah full back pay and lost benefits. "So, the Washington Post has its marching orders, let's see if they follow them," said Attiah, who described her reaction to arbitrator's ruling as "vindicated, slightly tired, really happy about the decision and reinstatement, plus back pay, of course."
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