Dragon and Kevin – Photos courtesy Gardening Gays Farm
An interracial gay couple who run an award-winning farm in King George County, Virginia, say they were the targets of a hate-filled act after someone deliberately dumped medical waste on their property following last week’s state elections.
Kevin Graham, 44, and Dragan Kurbalija, 47, own Gardening Gays Farm, a 27-acre property along U.S. Route 301 where they sell flowers, eggs, seasonal produce, and pasture-raised meats, including lamb and chicken.
They also sell jams, sauces, teas, herbal remedies, local honey, handcrafted candles, and other artisan goods at their on-site store, and share their experiences as farmers on YouTube. The business was recently voted King George County’s “Overall Best Business,” “Best Family-Owned Business,” and “Best Agricultural Business” in a county-sponsored “Best of the Best” contest.
The couple awoke on the morning of November 5 to find bags of medical waste — including soiled bedsheets, used gloves, packages that appeared to contain syringes, and human feces — strewn across their driveway near the farm’s entry sign.
“It’s medical waste that is strewn all the way across the entrance of our farm,” Graham told The Advocate. “There are bedsheets that have human feces and urine on them. You can smell the human waste while you’re out there standing near it.”
The littering appears to have occurred late on November 4 — the same night Democrats swept all three statewide races and gained 13 seats in the Virginia House of Delegates. But in King George County, Republican gubernatorial candidate Winsome Earle-Sears — who campaigned against transgender rights and claimed in a debate that firing someone for being gay was not discrimination — won by 19 points.
The couple told The Advocate the timing is hard to ignore, coming right after a contentious statewide election.
“We don’t lean into or talk politics with anybody,” Graham told the LGBTQ publication. “But the fact that this happens after an election day, with what took place here in Virginia last night, really rubs you the wrong way even more than it would’ve on any other regular Wednesday.”
It appears that only their property was targeted.
“It does not appear to be an accident,” Graham said. “You look up and down the roadway, and everywhere else is completely clear. The trash is only at our entrance.”
“Nobody puts human feces in a regular trash bag and drives it on the back of a truck to the dump,” added Kurbalija. “It definitely feels personal.”
Graham said it wasn’t the first time their property had been targeted. Two weeks earlier, someone dumped fast-food trash at their gate.
Deputies from the King George County Sheriff’s Office responded to both incidents and notified the Virginia Department of Transportation to handle cleanup because of the biohazard risk. Both cases remain under investigation.
The couple, who plan to install more security cameras near their entrance, say they’re not going to be intimidated by this incident or change how they live their lives.
“People often ask, ‘Why are we “Gardening Gays?”‘ Graham said in a Facebook reel following the incident. “This is who we are — to put on notice with who we are. When you come through our gates, when you come in to do business with us, we treat everybody as an individual, as a human being.
“When we moved into this community four years ago, we pulled up our boots and got right to work, providing a safe space, a service, something we thought this community needed and wanted,” he continued. “None of this is ever going to stop us from what we’re doing. But if you are the person who did this, understand this: it is disgusting, and we do not tolerate any type of act like this. Everybody who walks through this gate is treated the same — with love, human decency, and respect — and we expect the same thing as well.”
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