On April 27, students noticed posters supporting LGBTQIA+ populations around Budd Center had been taken down and one poster in Shima had been ripped off, crumpled, and left on a railing nearby. The poster depicted various people wearing a variety of bras, binders and having top surgery scars. They are surrounded by florals, smiling and in bubble letters on the top left reading “Protect Queer Lives.”
All that was left on the board was one corner of the poster that read “Protect Que-.”
The posters were part of a grant funded project instructed by local artist Shanna Strauss and organized by L.H. Horton Gallery Coordinator Jan Marlese, Photography Professor Kirstyn Russell, gallery student assistant Schaz Colón, and Pride Center student program specialist Jasmin Arroyo.
In the days since, more posters have been torn down and thrown away. A campus walk on the morning of Friday, May 1 found a LGBTQIA+ affirming poster openly crumpled in a trash can in the Holt Center.
The posters had gone up on April 22 as part of the California Teachers Association (CTA) LGBTQ+ Safety in Schools Grant. The grant provided $1,250 for advocacy of queer student safety, and the funds were matched by the San Joaquin Delta College Teachers Association (SJDCTA) and the San Joaquin Delta College Horton Gallery.
The posters featured a variety of illustrations from 10 student artists of queer and trans people to spread awareness about their struggles. One of the posters taken down in Budd was from Colón, depicting a crowd of queer families waving a Progressive Pride Flag that had writing under the crowd simply stating “Love Wins.”
Other posters showcased other queer struggles. One, “God’s Creation,” was a close up of someone with the burning heart of Jesus praying the rosary on fire with writing that read “Lord, why is their love pure while mine is a sin?”
“I feel like it was very disrespectful, not only to us as an artist and to the people who are part of this event, but also to the LGBT community. We have these posters up to bring awareness. And for them to be taken down kinda solidifies the reason why we’re doing this,” Colón said.
Three of the original posters taken down were related to LGBTQIA+ issues and one related to farmworkers. And on April 28, two more were removed near Shima according to Director of Marketing and Communications Alex Breitler.
“It hurts to have something so personal to us, something we have put so much work, heart, sweat, and even tears into to be defaced and destroyed by some faceless loser,” said Katie Graham, a student artist who participated in the project. “But on the other hand, I feel vindicated. It’s proof that we are being heard and it’s actively moving in the world. Making the hateful, bigoted and willfully ignorant people uncomfortable. So uncomfortable that they can’t just walk past it and move on to the rest of their day, but they have to tear it down and hide it in the trash.”
When the posters first went up, the organizers were aware of the risk of tampering and vandalism, since they have had previous issues with signs in support of trans students in previous semesters. In Fall 2025, lawn signs in support of trans athlete participation in sports were removed from campus, according to a confirmed tip to the Collegian.
In response to the tip, Collegian filed a public records request on Jan. 29. The request is still being fulfilled by Delta College. Emails received so far indicate anxieties around the removal of signs amid national restrictions on LGBTQIA+ rights.
“So how much trouble am I going to get into if we sent this out to collect the lawn signs?,” reads a Jan. 30 email from then-Director of Facilities and Management Stacy Pinola in response to a draft memo regarding the cleanup of signs posted around campus. The email is one of several related to campus signage and the Fall 2025 removal.
“I think it is really upsetting…I think there’s a vulnerability when you put your artwork out onto the world and we all thought something might happen given the history of signage being thrown away on this campus, but we didn’t expect it to happen so quickly and feel so targeted,” Russell said.
Russell reported this situation to campus police and police are now investigating this issue. Russell made it clear that the students did their best to make sure their posters went through the right channels and got approved for an extension for 60 days on display rather than the 30 days usually allowed.
“The College and the Police Department take all such situations seriously, and police are combing through video and looking at other investigative leads,” Breitler said.
Breitler also said that Delta stands with Delta College Board of Trustees resolution from last year that “every individual has the fundamental right to their identity, including gender identity, gender expression and sexual orientation as these are essential aspects of a person’s being.”
