Visitors to Western Australia’s Great Southern region has been welcomed with shocking graffiti calling for LGBTIQA+ people to be deported.
‘Deport Queers’ was sprayed over a sign in the Muir Highway that welcomes people to the Great Southern region, one of Western Australia’s most popular tourist destinations.
The Department of Main Roads has rushed to remove the graffiti from the sign after inquiries from OUTinPerth.
Albany Mayor Greg Stocks, the region’s largest city, condemned the message.
“The City of Albany is proud to be an inclusive and welcoming community. We do not condone hateful or discriminatory language in any form, and the graffiti on this sign is deeply disappointing.” Mayor Stocks told OUTinPerth.
“Albany is home to one of regional Western Australia’s largest Pride festivals, and we are committed to celebrating diversity and standing with our LGBTIQA+ community.
“We are committed to ensuring this region is a place where everyone can live and belong without fear of discrimination.”
Councilor Lyn MacLaren, who previously served in the state’s Legislative Council as a member of The Greens, also condemned the graffiti.
“It’s shocking to read a Nazi slogan spray-painted across a sign intended to welcome people to our region.”
“I hope authorities treat it with the seriousness it merits. There is no place in Australia for this creepy behavior.” Councilor MacLaren told OUTinPerth.
“Of course queers are welcome in the Great Southern, it includes the Rainbow Coast!”
MacLaren said as soon as she’d been made aware of the sign, which is located in the neighbouring Shire of Plantagenet, she’d reached out the Shire President Len Handasyde and urged him to be vigilant on the impact of hate speech on the queer community, and specifically on young people.
“I let him know that Albany had a stark increase in demand for mental health services in the last year.” Councilor MacLaren said.
“As recent as last weekend, the federal election resolutely rejected ‘Trumpism” and returned an Albanese Government, and re-elected all Greens Senators, giving them the balance of power. We can rest easy that a proposal to deport queers would fail.”
How the ‘Deport Queers’ links back to the rise of Donald Trump
In November 2024 in the days after the USA elected Donald Trump to be the President, thousands of Hispanic people and LGBTIQA+ people were sent SMS messages informing them they’d been selected for deportation.
At the same time many Black people in the USA received texts telling them they had to report to the cotton fields. The FBI investigated the incidents, but no information on who was behind the campaign has been released.
In 2025 the Trump Administration began detaining and deporting people undocumented immigrants who they believed to be association with criminal gangs. The administration deported 238 men to El Salvador.
Swept up in the process was Venezuelan man Andry Hernandez Romero who had applied for asylum in the USA. The makeup artist was sent to a harsh prison in El Salvador.
It has been suggested that Romero had tattoos that indicated an affiliation to a criminal gang, but his supporters have argued that the tattoo’s relate to a festival from his homeland and are commonplace in the region.
Hernandez Romero left Venezuela in May 2024 because he was targeted for being gay and for his political views. He made the long trek north through dense forest between Colombia and Panama, to Mexico, where he eventually got an appointment to seek asylum in the United States. At a legal border crossing near San Diego, he was taken into custody while his case was processed.
Then he disappeared.
“Our client, who was in the middle of seeking asylum, just disappeared. One day he was there, and the next day we’re supposed to have court, and he wasn’t brought to court,” Lindsay Toczylowski, Hernandez Romero’s lawyer, told CBS News last month.
Confirmation that Hernandez Romero was in a terrorist prison in El Salvador came when TIME magazine photographer Philip Holsinger saw him at the facility.
He recalled seeing a young man who was saying, “I’m not a gang member. I’m gay. I’m a stylist.” He described his as crying for his mother as he was slapped and forced to have his head shaved.
His photograph also captured the tattoos on his fingers that are reportedly the reason for his deportation. They have tattoos of crowns, that also have his parent’s names. US authorities have denied that he was deported solely for his tattoos saying his social media posts also showed links to the Tren de Aragua criminal network.
A report from Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law has estimated that the Trump administration’s policy to mass deport undocumented immigrants from the USA could see around 640,000 LGBTIQA+ people removed from the country.
Many people ask for asylum in the USA citing a “credible fear” that remaining in their home country could be life threatening due to political beliefs or other reasons. While sexuality make up a tiny amount of these claims, almost all claims on the basis of sexuality are found to be genuine.
OUTinPerth reached out to Shire of Plantagenet Shire President Len Handasyde, state MP for the region Scott Leary, federal MP Rick Wilson, and Albany Pride for comment.
Do you need some support?
If you are struggling with anxiety or depression, support and counselling are available from:
QLife: 1800 184 527 / qlife.org.au (Webchat 3pm – midnight)
QLife are a counselling and referral service for LGBTQIA+ people.
DISCHARGED: info@discharged.org.au / discharged.org.au
Discharged is a trans-led support service with peer support groups for trans and gender diverse folks.
Lifeline: 13 11 14 / lifeline.org.au
Beyondblue: 1300 22 4636 / www.beyondblue.org.au
Update: 10-05026 9:47am For a few minutes a version of this article accidently described Mayor Greg Stocks as Condoning the message on the sign rather than condemning its content. OUTinPerth apologises for the error.
