A "suspicious" fire destroyed a support hub for rainbow and gender-diverse youth at the Historic Village.
Tauranga's rainbow community has "a spear through its heart" after a space for youth was destroyed in a midnight blaze some fear was deliberately lit.
The Historic Village building is shared by Gender Dynamix, an organisation that serves the needs of the gender-diverse community, and Rainbow Youth who use it as their drop-in centre.
The fire, which police are treating as suspicious, has prompted an outpouring of grief and giving for the Tauranga queer community, with a Givealittle for Rainbow Youth raising more than $61,000 as of Sunday afternoon. A Givealittle for Gender Dynamix has also been launched.
A gathering was held at the village this afternoon where people came to support those affected.
The gathering was held on Thursday after the "suspicious" fire. Photo / Mead Norton
Tauranga pride advocate Gordy Lockhart told the crowd, "the rainbow community has had a spear through its heart".
"That building is acceptance, it's being part of a community that perhaps you didn't have access to beyond these grounds," he said.
"So that somebody would come in and destroy that space is just absolutely gutting. To see it in that shape - when it was a bastion of acceptance and tolerance - [to see it] looking like that is disgusting," he said.
Earlier, Lockhart told the Bay of Plenty Times it was "absolutely appalling" LGBTQIA+ and gender-diverse youth had lost a safe community space.
"I have very much been aware that Tauranga is a conservative town - increasingly less so. But I have never experienced the vitriol and spitting venom that I have experienced this week.
"This is unprecedented in Tauranga," he said.
He called on police to "seriously examine" the hate speech environment in Tauranga.
"It has expanded to violence. It's not Tauranga - it's not why I moved here, it's not why people love Tauranga. Tauranga is not burning down somebody's building because you don't like who they are."
Katerina Clark cried when her partner sent through a news article about the fire.
"I just cried at work and hugged a few friends and said 'I have got to go down there'."
Clark started the Tauranga Pryde group at the Historic Village in 2014. She viewed the fire as an attack aimed at the groups using the building and it was "quite scary".
"I can't say I have seen anything like this aimed at the rainbow group. We never had threats or anything like that when we first started up. This is massive, if it is aimed at the group specifically. Is someone going to get hurt next?"
"I just want to spread kindness, stop the hate and let people love who they want to love."
The building is shared by Gender Dynamix and Rainbow Youth. Photo / Emma Houpt
Gender Dynamix board chairwoman Maddie Stubbins was "devastated" by the fire but said the organisation's operations would continue "business as usual".
She was thankful it had a second building - also shared with Rainbow Youth - in the village that was unaffected.
"We are devastated this has occurred and will do everything we can to support our community and overcome the challenges that lay ahead," she said.
The organisation helps transgender, gender-diverse and non-binary people by offering counselling, peer-driven group therapy support, whānau support and community education.
She said it would work to "help gender diverse and the rainbow community heal from this devastation".
Rainbow Youth executive director Pooja Subramanian said there was a "lot of devastation" among the staff, volunteers and wider community.
"Rainbow Youth has been present in Tauranga for a really long time and something like this has never happened. The rangatahi (youth) down in Tauranga are feeling extremely devastated.
"I think any time things like this happen it really does feel like it's a heartbreak the entire community feels," she said.
"I think it's also a time where we need to do what we are really good at doing - which is come together with our chosen whānau."
The Tauranga building was a drop-in centre for young people holding social groups, community events and providing one-on-one support.
Anjum Rahman, co-leader of the Inclusive Aotearoa Collective Tāhono, travelled from Hamilton to show her support for rainbow youth.
The group was founded following the March 15 terrorist attack in Christchurch.
The building is shared by Gender Dynamix and Rainbow Youth. Photo / Emma Houpt
She said if deliberate, the fire was an attack intended to create fear among people, which only reinforced the importance of coming together for the cause.
"I think an attack like this on one community is an attack on all communities. We need to be showing solidarity to each other to say that any kind of attack based on people's identities is unacceptable," she said.
Tauranga-based Labour List MP Jan Tinetti told the event she was "deeply saddened" by the blaze.
"It breaks my heart to stand here today in front of this obvious place where people will feel that violation," she said.
She spoke about the arson attack on Merivale School in December 2015, during her tenure as principal.
"For rainbow youth it is even more devastating ... to have that safe place be so violated like this, no matter what happened, it's just horrific."
People gathered at the Historic Village on Thursday to show solidarity for Rainbow Youth and Gender Dynamix. Photo / Mead Norton
Village owner Tauranga City Council said no one was in the building or was injured when the fire started about 12.30am.
Fire crews were able to prevent the blaze from spreading to any other of the 60-odd buildings in the village.
Council venues and events manager Nelita Byrne said it was "too early" to comment on the possible cause of the fire.
Police were called to the scene about 12.45am, a spokeswoman said.
"It's being treated as suspicious. Police have conducted a scene examination this morning and inquiries are ongoing."
Asked whether the incident was a hate crime, police said: "Inquiries are in their early stages and no conclusions can yet be drawn about a motive, however, Police are keeping an open mind."
Rainbow Youth board member and End Conversion Therapy co-founder and leader Shaneel Lal said it was "really upsetting" to see Rainbow Youth's drop-in centre in Tauranga burnt down.
"Rainbow Youth has been crucial to providing support services to queer people, especially young queer people and it's shameful that someone has destroyed that for us."
