Money to repair vandalised LGBTI home crowdfunded in under an hour

A crowdfunding campaign launched this week to repair a home damaged in a homophobic attack has reached its goal in under an hour.

Olivia Hill’s Brisbane home, decorated with rainbow flags and ‘vote yes’ banners, was vandalised on the weekend, with rocks thrown through its windows.

The crowdfunding campaign took just 25 minutes to raise the hundreds of dollars needed for repairs, Huffington Post has reported.

Additional money raised beyond the amount needed to repair the property will be donated to the Equality Campaign.

Hill said that she has been traumatised by the attack but relieved by the public show of support.

“We’ve had so much support and love from our family and friends but also from total strangers,” she said.

“Last night I went down to get some food and someone who lives down the street from us had some flowers and a handwritten note saying ‘I love the work that you’re doing and sorry that you got attacked’.”

The crowdfunding campaign was started by James Breko of LGBTI activist group DIY Rainbow.

“I wanted to help [Olivia] out and I got in touch with her over Twitter and she was not sure what to do but I explained to her, we can take the stress and financial burden out of it and she was just blown away by the response,” he said.

“She was just blown away by people’s generosity and was really just shocked by how quickly it was funded and I think that is such a remarkable achievement for our community, not only the [LGBTI] community but allies who have put money in.”