Young family shocked by disturbing act of homophobia

What started out as a tasteless teen prank quickly took a darker turn for a gay couple and their young son in the east end.

A few Friday’s ago, Frank Nelson and BJ Barone thought they were answering the door for a dinner delivery. Instead, they found themselves facing five threatening teens.

“They started singing Jingle Bells,” Nelson told CityNews. “I didn’t really know what was going on, it sounded like he was being kind of rude in the song and then one of the kids screamed out ‘What do you think of LGBT'”

Nelson and Barone thought the tasteless song was the end of it but they could hear the teens still causing trouble on the street. Barone says when he went outside to further investigate, he saw the words ‘F*** LGBT’ written in the snow on their car.

When they saw that, the couple felt it was time to call police.

“The fact that they had the audacity to come up to our front door and talk to us face to face and do something like this. It’s a little concerning and it just makes us feel a little less safe,” said Barone.

An investigation led police to three of the teens. They were not charged but the three were marched back to the home for an apology.

Nelson and Barone say they are no strangers to homophobia. Three years ago, their touching photo of them and their newborn son went viral but was then misused by anti-gay rights groups.

They say they would have left the teens alone but the message left scrawled on the car simply hit too close to home.

“You can’t help but feel that some of what’s going on in our political climate right now are allowing people to be more racist and more rude,” said Nelson.

The apology wasn’t the only consequence for the teens. Their school was notified and one of them was suspended.