Authorities in McMinnville, Tennessee, a rural town approximately halfway between Nashville and Chattanooga, have charged three teens with a hate crime after they apparently confessed to spraying a gay man's house with paintballs. They said they targeted Neal Anthony because he is gay.
Anthony, whom I posted about the other day, found his home covered in anti-gay graffiti that said “all gays go to hell” and “fags deserve to die” just days after the paintball incident, in which he said his home was peppered with more than 80 paintball rounds.
Police aren't releasing the names of those charged, as they are juveniles (two are 15, one is 16), and it's unclear whether they are connected to the anti-gay writings discovered on the side of Anthony's historic 1851 home.
Anthony has asked that they clean up the damage.
Teens charged with hate crime over damage to gay man's house [ap via tennesseean]
For more on this story…
Vandals Target Tennessee Man in Anti-Gay Hate Crime [tr]