Lesbian Couple's Home Destroyed

A lesbian couple in Tennessee had their home burned to the ground. As if that weren't bad enough, someone saw fit to leave a little note, in the form of the word "queers" spray-painted on their garage. There are no words for how furious this makes me. A person's private sexual preferences doesn't give someone the right to destroy their home and ruin their lives. This is a horribly sickening thing to see.

The couple, Carol and Laura Stutte, were in Nashville celebrating the fifth anniversary of moving into their Vonore home on the night that it burned down. Luckily, Carol's daughter from a previous marriage had decided to join them in Nashville instead of staying home that night. It's likely that if she hadn't, she would have met the same fate as the house.

Carol and Laura, who have been together for over sixteen years(more than half the time that I've been alive), have been harassed and even threatened on and off for the past five years. One neighbor in particular is the source of the majority of the threats. The latest of the threats were issued just several weeks prior. They had tried ignoring the threats, but eventually decided it would be best to tell the police.

The police haven't yet released much on the case. Detective Travis Jones said "It is an arson and we are continuing the investigation". Authorities are still conducting interviews. Hopefully there will be more news on the case soon and the person responsible will be brought to justice.

I wish I could express in words how sad and angry this makes me. I really do. But there just aren't words for it. An act like this is one pure malice. What if they'd been home that night? It wouldn't just have been their home they lost, but their lives. They would have lost their lives, for what? For their sexual preferences? For enjoying a stable relationship instead of some façade?

It's time that we, as a society, put an end to this kind of bullying and hate. There has been enough needless death and violence in our history. If we don't put an end to it, it will most certainly put an end to us. These people are, after all, human beings like the rest of us. Just because they prefer a relationship with their own gender, doesn't make them less than human. It most certainly doesn't make them evil. They dream, hope, love, and suffer like the everyone else.