A mother’s powerful response to homophobic graffiti spray-painted on her home has garnered national attention.
Erin Kennedy DeLong, of Villas, N.J., said it all began during the early morning hours of July 30 when her 17-year-old daughter Miranda and her friend knocked on her bedroom door.
“You have to come downstairs,” Miranda said. “Someone spray-painted on the house and on our truck.”
DeLong went outside and saw the words “I’m gay” spray-painted on her garage door.
“There was this moment where I just stopped and said, ‘I can’t believe this happened in 2015,’” DeLong said.
The mother of two said she immediately called Lower Township Police.
“They suggested that night that we clean it up because we don’t want people to see that,” DeLong said.
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Yet rather than just clean up the graffiti, DeLong took it a step further in order to show support for her two daughters, both of whom are bisexual.
“We don’t want people to see graffiti in our neighborhood obviously,” she said. “But we’re also not going to be embarrassed that we have LGBT kids. We’re good with that. That’s where we got the idea to paint the garage rainbow.”
DeLong and her daughters painted the colors of the LGBT pride flag on their garage door for their neighbors, and the vandals to see. She took a photo of the rainbow-colored garage and posted it on Facebook, igniting an outpour of support.
“Stop Homophobia shared our picture and then it snowballed from there,” DeLong said. “It was amazing.”
DeLong’s photo went viral and her story was even picked up by the Huffington Post. Yet despite all the support, both DeLong and her daughters say they’re surprised by all the attention they’ve received.
“[They asked] ‘why is this newsworthy that our mom supports us?’” DeLong said. “That’s kind of our thing. This is what we’re supposed to do as parents. We want to make good little people. And how else can we do that than by showing them we’re proud of you. You’re awesome. What you want to be we want you to be the best at that.”
No arrests have been made in the vandalism. Despite the case being unsolved, DeLong takes solace in the fact that her response has inspired so many other families. She also has advice for other parents of victims of hatred and harassment.
“Love your kids,” she said. “Show people that what they say is more of a reflection on them than it is on you. If you support your kids and you love your kids, how you feel about them overshadows how other people do.”
