NY NEWSDAY: Gay men's home burns, with epithet left behind

[ladeuxiemevoiture]

Paul Day and Christopher Robertson knew life as gay men in Polk County could be rough. They had been called names and taunted by neighborhood teens before.

Day, 25, said he even had a mailbox riddled with shotgun pellets once when living near the Green Swamp in the north part of the county.

The couple never thought it would get so bad as Monday, when they returned home from errands to find their house in Kings Manor Mobile Home Park in Lakeland torched and the words "Die Fag" spray-painted on the front steps.

Statewide, though, there is an upward swing in the amount of violence reported toward people because of their sexual orientation. In the latest state report, for instance, hate crimes based on orientation accounted for a higher percentage of all hate crimes than ever before.

Monday's case is an arson with burglary, Lakeland Fire Department spokeswoman Cheryl Edwards said. But officials remain tight-lipped about the investigation.

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/orl-locgayburning29072905jul29,0,1350058.story?coll=ny-leadnationalnews-headlines

"They came for the Other, and I said nothing - when they came for me, there was no one left to speak for me."