A couple’s residential idyll in Chester County, Pennsylvania has been forever marred by homophobia.

Keith Davis, 36, woke up one morning in June last year to find his neighbours, with whom he was embroiled in a court case, had written in red paint ‘Get out Fags’ on his garage door.

He was driving his two sons, 8 and 13, to summer camp that morning. ‘I put the garage doors up. Thank God I saw it and was able to,’ they told NBC.

The neighbours insist the lawsuit is over the placement of a 6 foot high fence around their lawn. They say it is definitely not to do with Davis and husband David Ruth’s sexuality, even after the homophobic vandalism of their garage door.

Davis says without the fence the couple could not live in the idealistic community because of their four dogs.

Not only was their garage vandalised, but their fence was violently broken up and their security system destroyed five times.

A neighbour was also accused of yelling homophobic abuse at the property.

They even revived a defunct ‘Architecture Committee’ to make their case, but which hadn’t been used once since its founding 15 years before.

A judge has ruled in favour of the couple, allowing them to keep their fence and a build a swimming pool the community council had previously ruled against. The neighbours could still appeal.

The judge said this was clearly about ‘more than a fence’.

The ‘frivalous’ lawsuit, however, has cost them their life savings.

‘We need help paying off Legal Fees, which have amounted up to $77,000, to fight the lawsuit that had been filed against us. The suit was filed by members of our neighborhood and the suit has cost us a great amount financially, and emotionally.

‘Sadly, this lawsuit has costs us our entire life savings, and even now after winning our case we may still have no choice but to leave our home behind,’ they’ve written on their GoFundMe page.