Porter Pierluissi heard the “thud” and thought little of it.
Why did two people slap our window? Oh, they’re probably just being drunk and stupid.
Then he saw them peer into the bar, The Sugar Maple, through one of the two pride flags hanging in the front window. Again, not much to think about.
Oh, maybe they want to come inside, get a drink? But we’re closed; too bad for them.
And he watched them walk away, assuming that would be the end of it.
That he’d finish closing the register like he always does. That he’d head home shortly after and start playing Peak with his friend Paul, something they’d been on the phone planning. That it would be just another Sunday night, one that he’s had before and will have again.
“I’ll be home in a minute,” Pierluissi told Paul. “I’m just finishing up right now.”
That’s when he heard a crash, looked to his side and saw a rock about the size of a football five feet away on the ground, shattered glass everywhere.
‘I’m pissed the f— off. I was super-pissed’
Pierluissi, 21, has been working at The Sugar Maple, a pro-LGBTQ+ craft beer bar at 441 E. Lincoln Ave. in Milwaukee’s Bay View neighborhood, since he was 12, starting as a bar back before becoming a bartender.
In the decade he’s spent there, he’s never seen anything like the vandalism that occurred that night, June 22, at around 11:15 p.m.
As soon as he realized what had happened, that someone had actually thrown a rock through the window, he ran outside to get a better look at the people who did it.
“I just start hollering, ‘What the f—? Are you serious ?'” Pierluissi said. “I’m pissed the f— off. I was super-pissed.”
The people kept going down the street, not looking back. Maybe they hollered something back, maybe they didn’t. Pierluissi doesn’t remember.
Not that it would’ve mattered a whole lot. At the end of the day, it would’ve been the same result. A hole in the window. A rock inside on the floor. Glass in seemingly every nook and cranny.
And, maybe above all, hate the possible catalyst behind every decision — from slapping the window to finding the rock to going back to the bar to throwing it through that specific window.
Of the four windows in the front of The Sugar Maple, the one the person threw the rock into had a trans pride flag and a “PRIDE IS STILL PROTEST” poster hanging. It’s why the employees view this as not only a vandalization, but a targeted attack.
“It just feels like it is, right?” Pierluissi said. “They threw the rock through the trans flag and the ‘pride is protest’ sign. Like, no s—, that was targeted.”
The Milwaukee Police Department said in an email that it “does not appear” the attack was a hate crime, with a follow-up noting that the district attorney still has to review the incident. The department did, however, confirm it arrested a 37-year-old man on June 27 in connection to the attack.
Community provides outpouring of support to The Sugar Maple
Bartender and events coordinator Xay Matabele was at The Sugar Maple June 24 — two days after the attack. The very first customer who walked through the door showed up in solidarity.
“I’m just walking around the neighborhood,” the customer told Matabele. “And I saw what happened. So I wanted to come in and contribute and give these guys some money and buy a beer.”
Dozens of customers showed up for the same reason. The neighboring district’s alderman, Peter Burgelis, came by in lieu of alderwoman Marina Dimitrijevic, who was out of town, and spurred the police to do more. The nearby businesses shared their security camera footage.
The widespread support has also gone digital, so much so that not even GoFundMe could keep up.
Matabele made a GoFundMe page two days after the attack because people kept asking how they can help pay for a new window, setting the original goal at $1,800. After one day, GoFundMe’s algorithm had automatically bumped the new goal to $3,000. After two, it was $5,000.
Now, over a week since the page’s creation, The Sugar Maple has raised more than $5,700 from more than 100 donations — and has stopped taking them.
“Whatever money we use to pay for the window will be used for that,” Matabele said. “And then any excess money will go toward Diverse & Resilient and Planned Parenthood.”
Normalcy at The Sugar Maple in the wake of vandalism
Less than 24 hours after the vandalism, The Sugar Maple hosted an event.
That’s not out of the ordinary — the bar regularly hosts a variety of events. But this one carried extra weight — It was a queer speed-dating pop-up, a late addition to the night’s schedule after the organizer’s original location fell through.
The next night, a band performed. Two nights later, there were back-to-back nights of drag shows.
With the scars of the possible anti-LGBTQ+ attack still visible, here was The Sugar Maple, not deterred.
“We know that we’re a safe space for that community, and we just want to be able to keep providing that,” Matabele said.
“(The attack) fortified the staff, and then all of our community and our strengths and opinions on why it’s so important to be able to have this space to host these events and host these people from all these different communities and just have an accepting place where they can come and feel welcome.”
Yes, the window broke. But everything else got stronger.
Jack Albright can be contacted at jalbright@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Vandalism of pro-LGBTQ+ bar The Sugar Maple angers employees, rallies community
Reporting by Jack Albright, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
