var addthis_config = {“data_track_addressbar”:true};
Yesterday, we told you about a Minnesota teen who came out in a beautiful and very moving video he recorded for his friends at Centennial high school. in return for sharing his deep secret, Ryan Eichenauer was given two typewritten anonymous death threats.
Police now have another investigation on their hands — at the same school.
Eighth grade student Noah Ratgen came out late last year as well, also via social media. Shortly after coming out, Ratgen awoke to see “God hates fags” scrawled graffiti on his family’s driveway.
“It hurt — just like calling someone fat or ugly,” Noah Ratgen told Minnesota’s Fox 9 News. “There’s no reason to do it at all.”
In both instances, it begins with a student publicly identifying as gay — and both were met with backlash by those who would invoke God or religion while expressing their apparent hate. Ratgen and his parents say they were absolutely crushed.
“I just don’t understand why we’re such a big problem,” Ratgen said.
“On the driveway, written in very large letters: ‘God hates f–s,'” recalled Brad Ratgen, Noah’s father. “It was absolutely disgusting. I went and washed it off right away.”
The family reported the painful graffiti to police, but no arrests were ever made. Instead, the incident was filed as a hate crime with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.
“There’s reason people do it anonymously,” Brad Ratgen said. “They know it’s wrong. They know it’s hate-filled. No one wants to be associated. That’s why they do it under the cover of darkness at night, why they leave a note on a desk at school.”
Watch: