It took Seattle artist Aaron Freedman and one friend some scraper tools, a jug of Citristrip gel, and about four hours under the cover of a dark March night to liberate the giant, glittering rat at the heart of Cal Anderson Park.

Freedman felt he was unveiling something special as he scraped gray paint off the mosaic, from its narrow black tiles spelling the words “Hot Rat Summer” to its blue, white and pink stripes of the transgender pride flag.

But Freedman didn’t know that within weeks, the colorful mosaic that had laid mostly dormant for almost a year in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood would become a symbol of resilience for the city’s transgender community, inspiring a fervent, almost religious devotion from those who found a “patron saint” in the guerrilla artwork’s star: a hal

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