John Boyle

Asheville

CANTON – Jennifer Mann and Jodi McDaniel have lived together in their small home off Hilltop Farm Road for the past four years without any problems or disparaging remarks from neighbors or anyone else.

The lesbian couple didn't expect the first nasty encounter to come from Google Maps.

"My son was on Google Maps at school when he (searched) 'street view' for our address and it said, "Fagits live here,'" Mann said, recalling the incident of about a month ago.

She couldn't believe it initially, but when she checked Google Maps, the anti-gay slur was there, showing their driveway as the inappropriately named street.

"I just thought, 'Are you kidding me?'" said Mann, 39. "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."

A spokesperson for Google said the label was removed Wednesday after the Citizen-Times contacted the the giant search engine and mapping company.

According to the couple, the label was up for at least a month before it was removed Wednesday.

Mann said she considers the incident a "hate crime."

Kathy Hoglen, addressing coordinator for Haywood County, said the label did not originate at the county level. Hoglen said she or someone in her office approves every street name, and they typically don't name private drives like the one in question.

That driveway has no name registered with the county, she said.

"Of course we would never have approved anything like that," she said. "We don't allow crude or offensive names of any kind."

Poll:Should Google do more to ensure the accuracy of Google Maps?

McDaniel and Mann live together with Mann's three children, ages 23, 17 and 15, as well as one grandchild. They say they get along fine with neighbors and have not experienced any overt prejudice.

They both work at plants in Canton. Mann said she grew up in the one-story home, and McDaniel moved in with her almost five years ago.

They suspect someone may have hacked the Google site, or maybe an employee did it. McDaniel previously had a window sticker of two pink deer face to face, and that decal was visible from the street when the Google street mapping car came by last summer.

"They just need to grow up," McDaniel said of whoever pulled the mean-spirited prank, adding she's surprised Google doesn't have better safeguards. "They've got to be able to red flag it."

Mann's son, Dakota Bonham, 17, said he discovered the slur while Googling their address at Pisgah High School. He, too, is baffled as to why someone would do it.

"I was just like, 'What the hell?'" Bonham said. "It's just kind of messed up. They should kind of grow up a little bit."

The couple hopes to get the slur removed, but they also are considering some sort of legal action.

"We just stay to ourselves and live our lives," McDaniel said.

"We live ordinary lives, just like everybody else," Mann said. "Now it looks like I'm being a target."

Staff writer Casey Blake contributed to this report.