Erin Kennedy DeLong and her husband Joe were suddenly awakened from their sleep last week when their 17-year-old daughter Miranda came home from an evening out and found “I’m Gay” spray painted on the garage door of the family’s home in Villas, New Jersey.
DeLong decided to send a powerful, truly awesome message to the vandals by repainting the garage door to a rainbow palette of colors celebrating the sexual orientation of her daughters.
According to DeLong, both of her daughters, Erin and 14-year-old Emily, are bisexual. She speculates that someone who knows the girls from school was probably trying to shame them with the hateful message painted on the garage door. She said:
“I think it was someone that knows my younger daughter. Her boyfriend is trans and her best friend is gay. They are at the house a lot, and it’s not some closely guarded secret. That’s why we think someone was just shaming them.”
Police are investigating the incident, Ms. DeLong said she decided to turn something bad into a celebration of her love for her children, both of whom she is proud of:
“Our kids are our everything, and to see them hurt is worse than being hurt ourselves.”
DeLong added that she hopes the new colors on the door will show her neighbors that the DeLong family is:
“Proudly and loudly…an LGBT household, and we’re OK with that.”
The DeLong’s also update their family Facebook photo to reflect their support for LGBT rights:
