Neighborhood has inspiring reaction to complaint over gay pride flag
Donald Trump may try to build a wall against Mexico -- but Susan Pearlman of Ann Arbor, Michigan, is busy constructing her own kind of wall.
Pearlman recently came home to her college town to find an anonymous letter telling her that her gay pride flag made a neighbor feel "deeply troubled." Pearlman, whose daughter is a lesbian, chose not to take down her flag but instead reached out to her neighbors -- who responded by putting up 20 pride flags outside their own homes, Pearlman told Mashable.
Pearlman, who describes her community as having a "history of being LGBT friendly," was shocked to receive such a letter.
"I wanted to explain to you that the flag deeply troubled me in hopes you might understand why ... I was troubled by the rainbow flag because it overlooks so many of the things our country represents. The flag is missing the white stripes that represent purity and innocence," the letter reads.
The neighbor subsequently asks Pearlman not to take the flag down but to instead put an American flag next to it, side by side.
Pearlman told Mashable she put up the flag to express support for the LGBTQ community after the Pulse massacre in Orlando, Florida. After receiving the letter, Pearlman shared it with a few of her concerned neighbors:
"I opened the letter the evening of Nov 9th after returning home and immediately showed a few of my neighbors," Pearlman told Mashable. One of them "read the letter and asked where she could find a flag ... a couple others agreed with her. Then in response to an email I then sent to the rest of my street the flag 'wall' grew! As of today there are 20 flags flying and more are to come."
Pearlman shared her story on Pantsuit Nation, a secret group of Hillary Clinton supporters that has remained active even after the election. Her post has received over 32,000 likes.
A report released from the Southern Poverty Law Center on Tuesday found that there has been 867 hate incidents post-election. Of those, 95 were directed at LGBT people.
Earlier this year in Natick, Massachusetts, a neighborhood put up 40 pride flags after a lesbian couple came home to find that their house had been egged and their pride flag stolen.
Topics LGBTQ
Heather was the Web Trends reporter at Mashable NYC. Prior to joining Mashable, Heather wrote regularly for UPROXX and GOOD Magazine, was published in The Daily Dot and VICE, and had her work featured in Entertainment Weekly, Jezebel, Mic, and Gawker. She loves small terrible dogs and responsible driving. Follow her on Twitter @wear_a_helmet.
