Hate graffiti targets Castro floral shop, suspect allegedly assaults neighbor

Chartreuse by Roje, the floral design studio at Market and Church streets in the Castro, was hit over the weekend by what witnesses described as a hate-fueled attack: a man in a white SUV allegedly sprayed an explicit anti-gay message on the wall outside the shop, then got into a confrontation with a neighbor who tried to stop him.

Co-owner Jeff Dumlao said he and his partner, Roberto Cancel, were heading back to support a friend at an art show when a client texted them to return because of graffiti and a disturbance outside. When Dumlao and Cancel arrived, San Francisco Police Department officers were already at the scene. Witnesses said the suspect stepped out of the SUV, painted the wall, punched the neighbor after being confronted, crashed into a parked car and drove off down 14th Street.

Dumlao said the message on the wall cut deepest because it was not just vandalism but a direct attack on the LGBTQ community in one of San Francisco’s most recognizable queer neighborhoods. The owners painted over the graffiti right away, but the episode has already added to the unease that shadows small businesses in the Castro when harassment turns public and personal at the same time.

The timing and location sharpened the blow. The Castro is widely regarded as one of the oldest LGBTQ enclaves in the United States, and the Castro LGBTQ Cultural District was formed in 2019 to preserve and promote the neighborhood’s history and culture. Nearby, the GLBT Historical Society Museum describes itself as the first stand-alone museum of LGBTQ history and culture in the country, a reminder that attacks in this corridor land not only on a storefront but on the neighborhood’s identity.

The case also fits the city and state’s hate-crime framework, which includes bias based on sexual orientation. California’s 2024 hate-crime report said total hate-crime events, offenses, victims and suspects rose statewide, and reported sexual-orientation-bias events increased 12.3 percent, from 405 in 2023 to 455 in 2024. In the Castro, where Castro Community on Patrol was founded in 2006 after well-publicized assaults, the response to this latest incident will test whether the neighborhood still meets intimidation with visible solidarity.