Carol Ann and Laura Stutte owned a beautiful home on a beautiful piece of land in rural Tennessee. Together for 16 years with a grown daughter, this family had developed a community for themselves in the heart of a very, very red state.

Their next-door neighbor began threatening them, repeatedly telling them that she would burn their home, poison their dog, and kill the couple. Shortly after each of the threats, the family dog suddenly died of poisoning and their beautiful home was reduced to ashes.

It gets worse. The house was burned down while Carol Ann and Laura were out of town, celebrating an anniversary. When they returned, their home was burned to the ground and the word "QUEERS" was spray-painted on the side of their free-standing garage.

It gets even worse. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation deployed staff to the scene…four days after the fire and following two rainstorms that destroyed much of the arson evidence. After the men drank coffee, cracked jokes, and kept their investigation dog in the truck, Carol Ann asked if they were going to investigate. The response? "I know you'll find this hard to believe, but we have more important things to do right now."

And, believe it or not, it gets even worse. The Stuttes immediately filed a claim with their insurance company and the insurance company didn't send a team of investigators until a week and a half after the fire. For one month, the insurance company -- American National Property & Casualty Company -- honored their policy and provided basic living expenses. After that first month, though, ANPAC kicked them out of their rental home and told them they were on their own.

It's been almost six months to the day since the fire, and ANPAC will now no longer return calls from the Stuttes -- and have made clear that they will not honor their homeowners policy. Last week, the company offered to pay $610.18 -- yes, $610.18 -- toward the accrued living expenses for the family over the past six months. And it's clearly nowhere close to the $206,000 property claim and the $155,000 claim for personal items destroyed by the fire.

The Stuttes were hoping to follow the rules, resolve the situation peacefully, and just wait on this investigation to end -- but it's clear that ANPAC believes that this family is worth less than their other clients. And the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation refuses to give any updates, preventing this from being designated as a hate crime…while their neighbor not only walks free, but has been sighted walking around the property repeatedly since the fire.

The family was recently forced to file a lawsuit against their neighbor while they live in hiding in another area of Tennessee, unsure of their safety. They're suing the neighbor for damages -- in the hopes that it forces the investigation to move forward and they can again return to their normal lives.

This wonderful family has reached out to GetEQUAL for help, and we're hoping that the MomsRising community will also lend a hand. Here are three ways to help:

1) If you'd like to make a donation to help the Stuttes out, please head here. They've raised enough money to live on for the past few months, but they've reached the end of that money -- and their daughter is in need of a new insulin pump, costing about $7,000. This is clearly an immediate need.

2) Additionally, we have a petition running right now with over 12,000 signatures that is targeting the insurance company that has again and again refused to fulfill the Stuttes' claim. We have been having people call the 24-hour customer service line for the past two days -- their staff is now reading a prepared statement to callers. Now we're hammering away via a signature that targets all the leadership of the company.

3) And, finally, we'll be periodically adding updates to our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/getequal. Please feel free to friend us there, and we'll let you know about any updates we receive from the Stuttes or their lawyer!

Thank you SO much for your help!!