AHWATUKEE, AZ — Ted and Bertha Gibson were up at 6 a.m. Thursday, woken up by several knocks on the door.
"The neighbors were upset," said Bertha.
Outside her home, the words "God is gay" had been seen spray-painted in black across her garage door. The offensive message was followed by two pentagrams, a symbol usually used to represent Satanism.
“I just figured it was kids," she said. "I was upset at the fact that they would destroy property.”
The Gibson's, figuring the message was in direct response to the Christmas display outside their home. The couple's nativity scene lit up outside their home since Thanksgiving.
"We’ve had a nativity scene up for many years, and we’ve never had anything like this happen before, so it was just a real surprise,” said Bertha.
Ted Gibson, though, says he's unwaverd by the message.
“When a person is a believer and believes in God, they don’t worry about those kinds of things," he said.
Bertha says she called Phoenix police, filed a report, and was told the act could be a hate crime.
“The whole thing was just uncalled for," she said.
The Gibson's painted over a portion of the message shortly after police left their home Thursday, but neighbors are already offering to help the couple re-paint their garage door for free.
