As Virginia Democrats celebrated big wins both at home and in other closely watched races across the country following Tuesday’s off-year elections, one gay couple in the state woke Wednesday morning to find that their farm had been vandalized — and not for the first time.

“It’s medical waste that is strewn all the way across the entrance of our farm,” Kevin Graham, the owner, along with his husband Dragan Kurbalija, of Gardening Gays Farm, 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.”

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The couple, who bought the 27-acre farm on U.S. 301 in conservative King George County four years ago, told the outlet they believe this was an intentional act of anti-LGBTQ+ hate.

“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.”

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“Nobody puts human feces in a regular trash bag and drives it on the back of a truck to the dump,” Kurbalija added. “It definitely feels personal.”

King George County residents voted Gardening Gays Farm the county’s Overall Best Business, Best Family-Owned Business, and Best Agricultural Business this year.

But at the same time, this isn’t the first act of defacement they’ve endured. In a video posted to the farm’s Facebook account, Kurbalija explained that the couple found trash strewn at the farm’s entrance a few weeks ago.

“It seemed like an isolated incident, perhaps,” Kurbalija says in the clip, “but today, this is very intentional, very deliberate.”

The fact that the latest incident came on the heels of a Democratic sweep in Tuesday’s elections is not lost on Graham and Kurbalija. In Virginia, former U.S. Rep. and LGBTQ+ ally Abigail Spanberger (D) beat outgoing Republican Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears to become the state’s first female governor. Democratic candidates also won the races for the state’s lieutenant governor and attorney general, and Democrats also increased their majority in the Virginia House of Delegates, flipping at least 13 seats.

But, as The Advocate notes, Earle-Sears — whose campaign leaned heavily on anti-trans rhetoric cribbed from the president’s 2024 campaign — managed to carry King George County by a double-digit margin.

“We don’t lean into or talk politics with anybody,” Graham told the outlet. “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.”

Still, Graham said he and Kurbalija are confident in their community’s support for Gardening Gays Farm. “They have our back, and there are people in this town who speak up for us when we’re not in the room.”

In the video posted to the farm’s Facebook account, Kurbalija explained that the couple called their business “Gardening Gays Farm” to make it clear to anyone who comes through their gates exactly who they are.

“When we moved into this community four years ago, we came, pulled up our boots, and got right to work, providing a safe space, providing a service, providing something that we thought this community needed and wanted,” Kurbalija said. “None of this is ever going to stop us from what we’re doing.”

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