Vandalism Targeted Toward LGBT Magazine

Some readers of Metro Weekly, a news magazine serving the District's LGBT community, have found feces and rotting food in the news box stands around the city.

Sean Bugg, co-publisher of the magazine, says this has been happening for the past 2 to 3 months.

"It's a hate crime toward my readers because the people who are really getting affected by this are the people who are just going to open a newspaper box," he says. "And someone is trying to harass and, frankly, with the substances that they're putting in the boxes, traumatize them."

Bugg says the weekly vandalisms are happening around Dupont and Logan Circle, which have strong LGBT communities. He says it's not uncommon for publications like his to be targeted.

"Generally it's limited to things like throwing away publications," says Bugg. "This is something at a completely different level. I've never seen this kind of activity directed at a gay and lesbian publication in D.C."

Bugg says the incidents have been reported to the Metropolitan Police Department's Gay and Lesbian Liaison Unit.