PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Tricia Dressel was disheartened when she was recently notified that the 2015 mural honoring her late wife — Gloria Casarez, the Philadelphia Latinx LGBTQ activist — is set to be demolished.
However, members of the LGBTQ community are advocating for the mural to stay put.
Casarez was the city’s first director of LGBT affairs. During that time, she helped adopt the “broadest LGBT rights protections in the nation,” according to Mural Arts Philadelphia, ranking Philly as the No. 1 one city nationwide for LGBT equality.
Casarez died of breast cancer at the age of 42 in October 2014.
Her mural stands in the Gayborhood on 12th Street, between Walnut and Locust streets.
“It’s emotional bringing up the loss of Gloria all over again,” said Dressel. “Everybody’s just really upset. Again, Gloria’s mom worked on this mural, her aunt, her cousin, who passed away recently.”
Others in the community, like Chris Barlett, executive director of the William Way Center, say they would like it to stay where it is now.
“The stories of queer Latinx women and other marginalized queers should be centered in our neighborhood to make those stories visible,” he explained.
John Usdan, CEO of Midwood Investment and Development, which is responsible for the demolition, said his company will do its best to respect the community, but the building that bears the mural has to go.
“When we purchased the building, it was subject to an agreement with Mural Arts relocating the mural,” he said, “so there was an agreement in place giving us the right to do that.”
Dressel said she prefers the mural stay where it is, but if it has to be destroyed, she would like the community to have a say as to where and how it will be relocated.
The building is scheduled to be demolished within the year, though there is not set date yet.