Brody's Notes... Anti-Gay Arson Hate Attack Kills Gay Equestrian's Horses

Anti-Gay Graffiti at Arson Location
Photo Via WHIZ-TV News 

By Brody Levesque (Washington DC) APR 26 | A southeastern Ohio Gay man's barn was burned in what the State Fire Marshal is classifying as an arson fire. Seven adult horses and one foal died as a result of being trapped in the barn located on West Richards Road in McConnelsville, Ohio, just after 11:30 pm last Sunday.

In an interview with local NBC News affiliate WHIZ television, the property's owner, Brent Whitehouse, said he awakened to discover the barn engulfed in flames and immediately called 911, but it was too late:

 "I couldn't get the door open I could still hear the horses kicking and I tried as hard as I could to get them out and I just couldn't get them out in time," he said. 

According to media reports, neighbors who know Whitehouse are convinced that the fire was a hate crime, explicit words relating to his sexuality- The words "Fags are freaks" were found on the side of the barn, spray painted in large white letters before the fire was started. 

Whitehouse's close friend Bobbie Nelson told a reporter for WHIZ:

"They obviously don't know him very well, because he's a sweet-hearted person and how he lives his lifestyle is nobody's business but his own."

Another close friend of the victim, Yvette Yeadon, said:

"Whatever his sexual orientation was it had nothing to do with him as a person and to take it out on these innocent horses was beyond any fathom of what anybody should ever do to anybody."

Yeadon worked closely with many of the animals on a weekly basis. She said the foal was only a-week-old and one of the other horses was expected to give birth any day now.

"They were just in the beginning stages of life and they should've had the chance to live a wonderful life, and they didn't," she said.

Shane Cartmill with the Ohio State Fire Marshal's Office told reporters that a Blue Ribbon Arson Reward of up to $5,000 is being offered to anyone with information leading to the identification of the person or persons responsible. Cartmill also announced that investigators with both the Fire Marshal's office and the Morgan County Ohio Sheriff's Department are asking anyone who may have seen something out of the ordinary at or around the time of the fire to come forward.