Oceanside man finds gay slur spray-painted on his garage

Oceanside police are investigating after someone spray-painted a homophobic slur on the home of a gay man.

Aaron Earls said it felt like a gut punch Sunday evening when he saw his garage door stained with the offensive word. The paint was fresh. He could smell it.

Authorities are trying to determine whether the vandalism was a hate crime.

Earls said he had stepped out for a quick errand and returned to his condo to find the three-letter word in black paint on his garage.

Officers were sent to Earls’ home in the Oceana senior community shortly after 7:30 p.m. Sunday.

After police left, Earls said, “I think I went in my house and cried.”

“This is just hatred,” he said Tuesday. “Hatred and ignorance.”

He said he has spent a lifetime dealing with homophobia. But this one hurt.

“I don’t know how to deal with that anymore,” said Earls, 61. “I don’t have time for that. I don’t have any emotions left.”

Earls said recent health concerns prompted him to move from Colorado to Oceanside, where he knew no one, but would be closer to medical treatment providers.

He said there has been friction with a few neighbors. But there has also been vast neighborhood support, including a stranger who hugged him and handed him $500 to use as reward money for information leading to an arrest.

“I’m not going to let (the incident) change how I feel about people and about life,” Earls said.

Still, after fewer than four months in his current home, he plans to sell the condo and move elsewhere in the region.

“I don’t want to move,” Earls said. “But I have to. I have to.”