A local couple is seeking financial help through a GoFundMe campaign to move out of their current apartment complex in Renton after multiple instances of harassment where homophobic slurs were uttered and a Pride flag was ripped down.

Jason Vega said multiple instances of harassment, which he believes are linked to the fact that he and his husband are a gay couple, have driven them to move. Vega said he, his husband and his sister-in-law moved from central California to the Fairwood Cascade neighborhood in 2020, and they’ve enjoyed their time here — but he no longer feels comfortable staying.

Vega said issues first arose in May 2023, when children from a neighboring apartment complex ripped down their Pride flag. Vega said he was able to speak with one of the children’s parents. He said harassment stopped at that point, with one instance of pebbles being thrown at their sliding glass door, but in April 2025, more harassment began.

Vega said that at the end of April, kids began scoping out their apartment again, checking out where cameras were located. Accompanied by a video uploaded by Vega on GoFundMe, he stated that at the end of April, one of the kids claimed he was the one who had ripped the flag down in 2023. Vega said the kids then continued loitering around their patio, seemingly attempting to intimidate or provoke him and his husband.

The event, which made Vega call the police, occurred around 9:30 p.m. June 11, when some kids allegedly tried to possibly break into their apartment through a window, destroying a window screen and some plants on the window sill. Vega said that his husband then chased the kids, and they allegedly began to shoot at him with an airsoft gun and utter homophobic slurs at him. Vega shared photos on the GoFundMe showing alleged welts from the airsoft gun.

“We heard the noise coming from my sister-in-law’s bedroom, and we heard the window screen breaking, and then we heard items falling off her window sill,” Vega said. “At that point, we were assuming it included [the kids] because it wasn’t a shocking turn of events for us just due to those small instances that happened in the past and how it progressed.”

Vega said one of the toy guns looked obviously like it was not a real gun, but the other airsoft gun had no orange tip and looked real. Vega said if someone had seen the situation and not realized it wasn’t real, it could have ended much worse.

The most recent incident began the night of June 14, when they were having dinner and received a notification from their camera showing that someone had tried to rip down their Pride flag. Vega said that he wasn’t surprised that another incident had occurred, but this flag was better secured than the flag in 2023, and the attempt was unsuccessful.

Later that night, at about 2 a.m. June 15, Vega and his husband were sitting on the couch watching a movie when they began to hear banging on their door and glass breaking. Vega said that he opened his front door and found that a variety of putrid-smelling foods in jars and containers had been thrown at his door, creating a mess. In videos Vega uploaded to GoFundMe, multiple masked people are throwing things at their door.

Vega said he’s 100% sure he and his husband are facing this kind of harassment because they are a gay couple.

“With the fact that it’s aligned with the flag and the slurs, it seems like it’s definitely not happenstance because we haven’t heard reports of similar things happening to anyone else in the complex,” Vega said. “No one else is getting slurs thrown at them, property being attempted to be stolen or items being thrown at the front door.”

According to Renton Police Department spokesperson Meeghan Black, detectives are investigating if there is evidence of a hate crime. At this time, it does not look likely that a hate crime charge will be found, but the investigation is ongoing. Black said in the instance where Vega’s husband was allegedly shot by an airsoft gun, there would be probable cause for fourth-degree assault. Black said the suspects are thought to be juveniles.

According to Black, two of the suspects have been trespassed from the complex.

Vega said that he and his husband moved to Washington because they liked it here, and apart from the harassment at their complex, Washington has been good to them. He said that out in public or the workplace, they’ve faced no harassment, so they’re hoping the harassment was just because they ended up in the wrong spot. Vega said he hopes that once they’re removed from the situation, it will stop.

One thing that has made the moving process easier and allowed them to seek a smaller amount of donations is that their leasing office won’t charge them for breaking the lease, he said. Vega said they’re not sure if they’re leaving Renton, but they’ve been looking at places throughout the area. He said they’re seeking options, but getting the moving process started really depends on finances.

The Vegas’ flag being stolen in 2023. Courtesy photo.