A lesbian couple in North Carolina is upset that someone renamed their road on Google Maps with a homophobic slur, the Daily News reported on Thursday.
The misspelled, but effective, statement "fagits live here," was discovered by the couple's teenage son and he told his parents about it.
"It reminds me of Atlanta ... of the hate crimes," Jodi McDaniel said.
The couple lives on Hilltop Farm Road, with the home connected to the road by a private driveway. It's not clear when the name of the driveway was changed, but it's not on any official county maps.
Jennifer Mann and McDaniel said the slur was erased on Wednesday, but that it took more than a month for the change to happen. Mann said she considers the incident a hate crime.
"I just thought, 'Are you kidding me?'" Mann, 39, told the Citizen-Times. "I tried to contact Google, but I was put on hold forever and ever and ever. This day and time, with people and hate, you just can't live your life."
It's possible the person who renamed the street recommended the change through Google Map Maker and gained approval for the comment through the search engine's crowdsourcing.
McDaniel and Mann live with Mann's three children, ages 15, 17 and 23, and one grandchild. They said they haven't experienced any obvious prejudice and get along well with neighbors. The two work at plants in the town.
"They just need to grow up," McDaniel said of the culprit, adding she's surprised Google doesn't have better safeguards. "They've got to be able to red flag it."
