That time a woman’s brilliant response to their anti-LGBTQ neighbor lit up the block

A rainbow flag made of 10,000 lights decorates the woman's porch now
A rainbow flag made of 10,000 lights decorates the woman's porch now Photo: Screenshot

With Pride festivals around the nation canceled or postponed, LGBTQ Nation is bringing the celebration to you with our new series “Flashes of Pride.” We’ll look back at some of our community’s finest moments from the past few years as a reminder that no matter what life throws our way, queer people will fight our way through it and dance when we hit the other side.

In 2016, a woman shared her brilliant clapback to an anti-LGBTQ neighbor on Reddit. The neighbor felt compelled to share her views with her and needless to say, they were atrocious.

The Reddit post blew up and her revenge has become a common technique now to push back against homophobia and transphobia. With a few twinkling lights, she didn’t just send a message to her neighbors, she lit the imagination of activists nationwide.

Related: Parades might get canceled, but Pride never will be

She wrapped her front porch in 10,000 rainbow-colored Christmas lights.

“She had learned that we were Mormon from church,” the woman explained. “We are no longer Mormon, this issue is why I left. She came bouncing over and when my husband told her we no longer attend, she didn’t really get the message. She also must have missed the HRC sticker on my car.”

The woman, who did not identify in what part of the country she lives, wrote that her neighbor then proceeded “to tell us how horrified she was when her son got turned down for prom because the girl was already planning on going with her girlfriend.”

“That, coupled with the school’s justifications for letting lesbians attend the prom together and doing an assembly that taught kids the facts about being transgender were just too much for her. She said that she had to move them away because she was so sick of the gays and transgenders and everyone making their ‘lifestyle’ okay.”

“I know that I’m not going to change her opinion, no matter what I say,” she posted. “Having moved her kids to escape ‘the gays’, I’m sure me telling her my opinion on it won’t make a difference.”

But at least it makes her feel better.

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