So I did the research and I'm going to accuse you of using Vim to create your original file. You must be an addict. We can help. There are all sorts of editors that take care of BOM and most of them even ignore it because, unless you're using multiple languages, you don't need the distinction. Let us help you. type :q! into the terminal. It's easy. Just uninstall it. Come on, friend. You can do it.
Alternatively, why don't my programs automatically detect BOM. What did I do? Kate used to I think, but I'm running XFCE now and haven't looked back. I use Arch, by the way. Soooooooo...
/s wherever it fits for you.