A woman in Seattle, Washington defied her new homophobic neighbors by covering her lawn in 10,000 sparkling rainbow Christmas lights.
Lexi Magnusson took a photo of the colorful display and shared it to Reddit in 2016. Now that the holidays are here again, the photo is once again making the rounds on social media as an inspiring example of how to say “f*ck you” to homophobes in a seasonally appropriate way.
“Our new neighbors are bigots,” Magnusson wrote alongside the photo. “Since regular aggression leads to assault charges, I went with passive aggression. 10,000 lights later.”
Magnusson explained to HuffPost that her new neighbors spoke openly about their anti-LGBTQ views because they assumed that she felt the same way.
“She’s Mormon and heard that we were, too,” she explained. “My guess is that she thought we were still believers, even though my husband told her we no longer attend. I imagine she thought we still held the same belief about LGBTQ issues as the Church does. We absolutely do not. It’s why I left the Mormon church.”
The neighbor told Magnusson that she’d moved to the area to “protect her children.” Protect them from what, you ask? From their previous high school, which allowed lesbians to attend prom together and spoke openly about trans acceptance at school assemblies. The horror!
In response, Magnusson explained exactly why the neighbor’s views were wrong. But she was also full of rage, and she had to channel it somewhere. Why not into her annual over-the-top Christmas display?
“I felt good the entire time I put them up,” she said. “I sent a text to my cousin who loves Christmas lights like I do, and who is also gay. His approval was everything.”
Magnusson added even more lights to the display after taking the photo. The rest of the lights were white, so the rainbow truly stood out.
The homophobic neighbor has probably fled the area again by now.
