Here’s what’s happening at Wink Wink, the Bellingham business damaged by vandals
Wink Wink Boutique opened Friday, Aug. 12, after a week-long closure because five men hurled fist-sized rocks through its windows in an apparent politically motivated attack.
“We’ve had people coming by all week wanting to shop while we’ve been getting the store ready to reopen,” owner Jenn Mason told The Bellingham Herald.
“We’re excited to open our doors and get lots of hugs,” at the “not creepy” sex shop located among storefronts that flank the Commercial Street Parking Garage downtown, she said.
Total cost of the damage remained unknown, because the city of Bellingham, which owns the building, hasn’t received an estimate, Public Works Director Eric Johnston told The Herald.
Insurance won’t pay to replace the windows and damaged inventory, which will be “grossly expensive,” said Mason, who also is an elected member of the Bellingham school board.
To help offset costs, a Venmo account had raised nearly $19,000 by Friday morning, Aug. 9, Mason said, and another fundraiser on the GoFundMe website had received more than $6,300 in donations.
“If people were trying to change our minds about what we do, they have failed,” Mason told The Herald for an earlier story. “We’re not backing down from what we know is right. We’ll continue to serve our community.”
Bellingham Police released a photo on Wednesday, Aug. 10, that shows five young men walking in a downtown alley toward the parking garage at 3:19 a.m. Sunday, Aug. 7, just minutes before the attack.
But no arrests have been made, and police offered no new information Friday.
Mason, her staff and school district employees have been the target of repeated harassment and threats over the past 18 months because of commentary in right-wing media that twists the facts to portray Mason, her store and the school district in a false light.
Also Wednesday, about a dozen people protested classes that Mason, who’s also a certified sex educator, is teaching for youth called “Uncringe Academy.” Parents registered their children and paid for the classes, which supplement the fact-based sex education that all Washington schools must provide starting in kindergarten. Some of the protesters were unaware of that, and also seemed oblivious that Mason was elected to her school position with 76% of the vote in 2021.
One of the protesters repeatedly made “white power” hand gestures while standing in front of the Black-owned business Mo’s Parlor, which is across the street from the store owned by Mason, who is Jewish.
This week’s news has put Mason on the regional and national stage, and she gave interviews to Seattle media, as well as the magazine Jezebel.
Meanwhile, local artists volunteered to paint a colorful mural across the plywood that city workers used to cover the windows.
“It’s a joyful, colorful, minimalist celebration,” said Jes Bonin, whose studio is across the street from Wink Wink.
“I followed what happened online and I thought it was awful. It took (the vandals) a few minutes to screw things up for people and we’re willing to put in the time to fix it,” Bonin said.
This story was originally published August 13, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
CORRECTION: Jes Bonin’s name was corrected Aug. 13, 2022.
