Auburn family's home vandalized with swastikas, targeted with explosives because of pride flags
AUBURN, Wash. - An Auburn family said they are looking for answers after dealing with months of harassment, vandalism and explosives being tossed into their yard because of the LGBTQ+ pride flags they have up.
Painted on the fence outside of Mo Stewart's home are three words: "Love Thy Neighbor."
"Our rule number one in our house is ‘don’t be a jerk,’" she said.
Unfortunately, the simple phrase is seemingly more complicated to follow.
Stewart flies a pride flag on her front porch. She said she has it up to show love and support for the members of her family who are LGBTQ+. However, she said it’s also been the reason her home has been under attack for months.
"It starts with shock, and anger, and just disbelief. And then the realization that someone has invaded your space with that hate is worrisome. It’s scary," she said.
Stewart said someone has stolen or defaced the flag so many times that she and her partner decided to paint two pride flags onto her fence in an effort to stop the theft. However, she said it's only made things worse.
"We saw our fence and there were several swastikas and an expletive LGBT [phrase] painted across the fence," she said. "What do you do? That’s a swastika in 2023. It was shocking," she added.
On top of the hate speech, she said her home is also the target of several explosive-device attacks. She said the explosives have damaged her fence and her yard.
"My partner is a combat veteran who deals with PTSD, particularly related to rocket attacks," she said. "My kid is afraid to go to school because they don’t know who, in the halls, is part of these groups of people attacking."
Stewart said she calls the sheriff’s office after every incident, however, the attacks continue.
She said she never wanted to share her story this way, but she is hopeful whoever is terrorizing her family will change.
Stewart said the family is using GoFundMe to raise money to buy a more protective fence for their home.