A Teen Smashed the Stonewall Inn's Iconic Sign Because He Was Mad About Getting Kicked Out

In addition to all the other filth the news cycle routinely flings into our faces, someone decided to smash in the iconic neon sign hanging outside the Manhattan’s Stonewall Inn, widely regarded as the birthplace of LGBTQ civil rights.

According to the New York Daily News, the sign and the bar’s window were both badly damaged by “a teenager irate he was thrown out of Greenwich Village’s historic Stonewall Inn:”

William Gomez, 19, was hanging out in the bar with co-workers when he was thrown out of the legendary Christopher St. watering hole by a bouncer, according to cops and Gomez’s mother.

He allegedly returned with a baseball bat about 4:30 a.m. and smashed the bar’s window with it, punching holes in the glass and damaging the neon sign that sits in the window.

Seriously, William? This is why nobody likes teenagers. Gomez’s tantrum caused $7,000 worth of damage, though he’s not facing hate crime charges since authorities determined that his outburst was not motivated by the bar’s role as a flash point for the gay rights movement. Still, police arrested him near the scene, charging him with criminal mischief and reckless endangerment.

Fortunately, both the window and the sign were quickly repaired. The Stonewall Inn was landmarked by the city in 2015; in 2016, President Barack Obama declared the Stonewall Inn a national monument.