Homeowner Puts on Rainbow Light Show After HOA Says No to Pride Flags

When a homeowner in Wisconsin was told their rainbow-colored Pride flag violated their homeowner's association rules regarding political flags, they found a far more colorful way of celebrating Pride Month!

In a recent Reddit post, user memon17 recalled how they recently took down their Pride flag after receiving a complaint from their neighborhood's HOA. They then bought a series of colored floodlights and bathed their home in the colors of Pride. And best of all, the new rainbow of lights is perfectly within their association rules.

"Due to some neighbors flying BLM flags, Thin blue line flags, and other opinion flags, our HOA decided last month that we're only allowed to fly the USA flag, and nothing else," memon17 posted to Reddit last week. "The day after the decision, we receive an email that someone reported our Pride flag (that we had [o]n our house since 2016), and that we needed to take it down."

Memon17 complied with the request. After all, they sit on the HOA board, but they still wanted a way to show their Pride so they consulted the HOA rules and found that "removable lights are permitted without restriction." With the rule book now squarely on their side, they went out, bought six colored lights, and lit up the house in the colors of Pride.

"A little less subtle than our simple flag," Memon17 posted. "A lot more fun for anyone complaining about the flag itself and what it represents."

The poster later added a quick edit to their original post, clarifying they don't hate the HOA and just wanted to find a permissible way to show their Pride and individuality.

"I don't think they change [sic] the flag rule to attack me personally," Memon17 wrote in their update. "And that I decided to do this to show my individuality while still following the rules."

Many LGBTQ+ folks have used the Pride flag to show not just their pride in the community, but also as a means of protesting homophobia and oppression. A gay artist in Russia flew a giant Pride flag over the Kremlin last year as an act of protest. The flag was lifted by dozens of rainbow-colored balloons over the famed Moscow landmark. Several activists in Ukraine were able to use a drone to place a Pride flag on the country's version of the Statue of Liberty last year as well.

Memon17 wrote in their update that the original post received an outpouring of responses and support, with well over six thousand comments in less than a week.

"I just can't keep up with the comments," Memon17 wrote. "Thank you all for your amazing support."

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