Texas Tech University's Gay Straight Alliance has received a major outpouring of support since two Pride flags in the group's cubicle were reported stolen and vandalized in an apparent hate crime on Monday. The GSA reported on Facebook that both Pride flags were stolen from its cubicle in the student organization wing, with one of the poles snapped in half:

“Although we have many supporters across the TTU campus and Lubbock community, there are still those who find our community to be personally offensive,” the group wrote.

Lubbock Pride launched a GoFundMe page with the goal of raising $400 to replace the flags and support the GSA. In just 17 hours, the page had raised $623:

“This act of stealing the flags is more than a harmless crime,” the GoFundMe page states. “Those criminals took with them our flag, the rainbow that represents our community, the flag that represents diversity, love and equality. We must not allow people to try to hide our flags away, NO! We must instead help one another and continue to fly our flag high!”

Later Monday, the GSA expressed its gratitude to the community at Texas Tech and in conservative Lubbock:

There is nothing that we can say that could even begin to describe how blown away we are at the support we have received today!

Our flags have been replaced and the fundraiser goal met, all within a few short hours.

The support from the Lubbock and TTU communities is the source of our determination to continue to work to make TTU a safer, more inclusive university, even when others try to quiet us.

Thank you to everyone that has supported, and continues to support the LGBTQ community on campus and in the Lubbock community.

Your support is the reason we keep moving forward.