Texas Town Rallies Around Gay Couple After Pride Flags Vandalized
Texas, a small town is rallying around a gay couple and their daughter following vandalism to their home during Pride Month.Someone set fire to several rainbow flags on the family’s property near Dallas on June 2.
But, as the family refuses to give up, the rural community is showing them great kindness, and the police chief is devoting significant resources to finding the perpetrator.Keith Dowler, 51, and Terry Garner, 54, knew they had to make trade-offs to live in Corsicana and commute to Dallas.
However, the couple wanted to give their youngest daughter, Gabriella, all the benefits of growing up in a small town.They knew being gay would raise eyebrows.
Garner says heads turned when people saw the couple holding hands with their 8-year-old daughter when they moved to the town four years ago.Though they had never flown a Pride flag together, he says they frequently decorate their balcony with political messages.“We moved here from New Orleans, where people use their balconies in many different ways,” Garner says. “So we’ve ordered and flown banners for Beto [O’Rourke] or Joe Biden and Kamala Harris or ‘Her Body, Her Choice.’”Last year, when Gabriella asked for rainbow colors (she’s just a girl who likes rainbows), the dads ordered “everything under the rainbow,” Garner tells The Advocate.The couple wanted to represent the entire LGBTQ+ community in this year’s rainbow colors.“So we found one [flag] for the leather guys, one for lesbians, one for trans, one for twinks,” he says, “and the new Pride flag is in the middle.”Related: 31 Queer Pride Flags to KnowAfter decorating the house on June 1, they took a short vacation to a water park with Gabriella just a few hours away.
