At some point Sunday night or early Monday morning, a banner was hoisted in front of Portland's U.S. Grant High School:

"QUEERS BASH BACK!" it proclaimed, before being removed by school leaders.

Less easy to remove are a number of stenciled tags on a sign in front of the school, which read "Radical Angry Queers," "Assimilation =/= Liberation," and "Destroy the Gender Binary."

It's unclear who carried out the vandalism, but the reason is apparent. Students at Grant were incensed recently at a scrawled message in a gender-neutral bathroom at the school. "Who use this restroom are going to burn in hell," it's garbled, garbage message ran. "Your gay is gonna get shot."

Students spoke out after the message was discovered, and chided school administrators for not reacting more forcefully. Gender-neutral restrooms like Grant's are designed to be welcoming to transgender students or others who don't identify with a specific gender.

The Mercury was sent pictures of the graffiti and banner from a person claiming to have jogged by the school this morning and saw the aftermath (though it appears to be night time in one picture).

A spokesperson for Portland Public Schools says "these were put up late last night or early this morning. We don't know. We've got a crew on the way out there to covered up the stenciled stuff."

The school graffiti comes amid reports of more-sinister vandalism. Police said this morning that Portland's Richmond neighborhood had been hit with hate graffiti like swastikas "tagged onto cars, sidewalks, garages, and other property." The Mercury reported last month that incidents of political and hate graffiti are up sharply since Donald Trump won the election.