Colorado Farm Hit by Antigay Vandalism

A Colorado family farm that provides organic food and community-supported agriculture found itself the target of antigay and anti-Semitic attacks Sept. 7. Ann Grant Martin, a lesbian member of the organic farm's founding family, told the Coloradoan that the act was committed by "somebody with a lot of darkness in their hearts."

According to Coloradoan.com, buses hand-painted with images of "Love" and "Peace" at the Wellington-based Grant Family Farm were defiled with spray-painted swastikas and antigay slurs in a possibly bias-motivated crime. The farm, which lies in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains just south of the Wyoming border, was started in 1953 by Lewis Grant and his son, Andi, and is now staffed by a variety of folks -- gay and straight.

Used as mobile free-range chicken coops and a tour bus, the Grant Family Farms buses had been colorfully adorned through a regular tradition at the farm. Cherry Creek Schools donated one of them weeks earlier after 70 children helped paint the bus. The vandals -- who have not been caught -- spray-pained on all sides of three buses, mostly swastikas and antigay slurs.

"The farm is a safe place to work, and it's a healthy place to work, and it's a very inclusive and respectful place to work," Grant said, adding that the vandalism is "really upsetting."

The 2,200-acre Grant Family Farms is Colorado's first organic farm and it donates hundreds of thousands of pounds of food a year to people who are hungry. The community is rallying around Grant Family Farms. On Sept. 24, they'll host a bus re-painting party and are asking anyone with an extra hand (and any extra house paint hiding in their homes) to come out, bring the kids and some pain brushes, and get ready to restore the buses to their glory. For more info, visit Grant Family Farms.