UPDATE: Relentlessly Gay Woman Might Have Been Scamming Y'all

Julie Baker, that Baltimore woman who claimed her Christian neighbors threatened her over her “relentlessly gay” garden, and raised some $43,000 via a GoFundMe campaign, might just have been nothing but a big fat liar.

Baker claims a  note signed by ‘A Concerned Home Owner’ told her that her yard which features a set of colorful lamps that ‘spell out ‘love’ and ‘ohana’ — the Hawaiian word for ‘family’ — was too ‘Relentlessly Gay’ for a ‘Christian area’ where there are ‘Children.’ But now Baker is accused of making up the story as consistencies and suspicions have surfaced.

It all started when the story went viral online and folks began pointing out how both Baker’s message on GoFundMe and the “letter” from the neighbor feature the same improper use of capitalization. The letter features words like ‘Others,’ and ‘Forced’ that are capitalized while Baker’s GoFundMe page shows words like ‘Home,’ and ‘Relent,’ and ‘Hatred’ being incorrectly capitalized.

And it appears that Baker uses that same form of writing — capitalizing certain words for apparent emphasis — on her Facebook page as well. And she uses her Facebook account to rail against Christian opposition to marriage equality.

Naturally, suspicions arose when Baker’s GoFundMe page began receiving huge donations, and people questioned why she kept it up after she claimed she just wanted $5,000 to continue her rainbow theme garden and home projects.

When Snopes — a website covering urban legends, Internet rumors, e-mail forwards, and other stories of unknown or questionable origin — reached out to Baker asking if she could provide any information to readers to reassure them of the authenticity of her claims, she replied saying:

“I have been in contact with the police, they are satisfied with me, I am satisfied with them, and am grateful to them. They have no reason to believe that I have done anything wrong or been anything but authentic.”

But Snopes says that isn’t true; they spoke to a detective at Baker’s local precinct on 24 who says that “Baker was either unwilling or unable to produce the letter in question, and that she had maintained it was no longer in her possession.”

Julie Baker closed her GoFundMe page on 22 June, thanking donors for their generosity:

‘I just learned moments ago that I could turn off the donations, and I am doing so because I there is plenty, more than plenty, above and beyond the goal.”

She then addressed the suspicions that this was all a scam and vowed to not withdraw any funds until the matter is cleared up:

“On a sadder note, the world is filled with hate and fear, as such I want to work to remove any doubt about the authenticity of the letter. Until then I am not taking a dime out of this account. Please carry on with flooding the world with rainbows and joy, be relentlessly generous, be relentlessly compassionate, be relentlessly vibrant and stay relentlessly gay.”

Let’s hope she wasn’t just crying “Relentlessly Gay,” and that she was telling the truth. But if she wasn’t, let’s hope that she has the decency to turn over all of the monies raised to an LGBT group in Baltimore, where the money could do some good, and not just fill out the bank account of an internet scammer.

Stay tuned …

Gay Star News

Can I Get An Amen? Relentlessly Gay Gardens!

Julie Baker lives in Baltimore and has a small front garden that she likes to work in, and likes to keep colorful and pretty and, well, according to one neighbor, gay … too gay. In fact, that neighbor, unhappy with Julie’s multi-colored garden, wrote this note to her:

“Your yard is becoming Relentlessly Gay! Myself and Others in the neighborhood ask that you Tone it Down. This is a Christian area and there are Children. Keep it up and I will be forced to call the police on You! Your kind need to have Respect for GOD.

A Concerned Homeowner”

Your kind? It makes one wonder what God might think of that because I imagine She isn’t sitting up there in Heaven dividing the world into Us and Them, but then I am not some religious zealot wingnut in Baltimore.

Luckily, Julie Baker wasn’t worried either, because rather than tone it down, she turned it up, and launched a GoFundMe page to help make her garden more “relentlessly gay.” In fact, if she says if she raises enough money, she’s gonna put a Rainbow Roof on top of her home. Here’s what Julie says on her Go Fund Me page — and you can go there if you wanna donate:

I opened my door, and found a note from my neighbor. Regarding a set of rainbow jar solar lights hanging in my yard that spell out “Love” and “Ohana” [Hawaiian for 'family'].  They informed me that the neighborhood is “christian” and has “children” and asked me to stop being “relentlessly gay”….

Needless to say…  I need more rainbows… Many, many more rainbows…. So, I am starting this fundraiser so I can work to make my Home even More “relentlessly gay”  If we go high enough, I will see if I can get a Rainbow Roof! Because my invisible relentlessly gay rainbow dragon should live up there in style!

Put simply, I am a widow and the mother of four children, my youngest in high school and I WILL NOT Relent to Hatred. Instead, I will battle it with whimsy and beauty and laughter and love, wrapped around my home, yard and family!!!

Thanks for your relentlessly gay support!

As of this morning, Julie has raised over $40,000 for a rainbow roof, and maybe a rainbow front door and shutters, and, what the hell, maybe some actual rainbows. Julie has also created a video to thank her supporters:

Thousands of people that I don’t even know are standing up and saying it okay to be ‘relentless.’ Something that started out as an insult, was supposed to be an insult, now is suddenly this wonderful thing, and why not? Why not be relentlessly you, why not be relentlessly fabulous? Why be subtle, why be shy? Why hide it? It’s okay to be who you are.

I told my kids one of the reason I love rainbows is because they’re made up of broken light. It’s fractured, it’s cracked… kinda like a lot of hurt people. But because of it it’s beautiful, and maybe even more magnificent. And I think that’s one of the reasons I’m driven more to get this message out, especially since this message has kinda been dropped in my lap!

So yeah, I’m gonna have a rainbow house, and it’s going to be fabulous. And it might irritate the person that did it, but it’s not about irritating the person that did it, it’s about being relentlessly joyful, and being damn proud of it, and sharing that with other people.

I want the planet to go ‘hey, be relentless,’ because it should be a good thing.

And it is also relentlessly gorgeous and relentlessly free and relentlessly positive and looking at it makes me relentlessly happy ... 

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