Woman Shuts Down Homophobic Neighbors With 10,000 Rainbow Lights

Her rainbow holiday light display is directed at a bigoted neighbor

In today’s tricky political atmosphere, in which the bigoted often seem more emboldened than ever, it can take some creativity to fight back without being too righteous about it. A creative and open-minded mom outside of Seattle is a perfect example of passive-aggressive humanity.

Lexi Magnusson figures her new neighbor found out she was Mormon – emphasis on was – and thought making derogatory comments about LGBTQ people was fair game. She did her best to keep her cool, refuting her neighbor’s intolerance with patience and reason. And that’s how the idea for this amazing display of rainbow lights in her front bushes was born.

Magnusson figures her new neighbor found out she was Mormon – emphasis on was – and thought making derogatory comments about LGBTQ people was fair game. The mom did her best to keep her cool, refuting her neighbor’s intolerance with patience and reason.

In an interview with the Huffington Post, Magnusson explained what happened, and how she responded.

“She’s Mormon and heard that we were, too. My guess is that she thought we were still believers, even though my husband told her we no longer attend,” she told HuffPost. “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.”

Clearly, Lexi is not one to take things lying down. Not only did she leave a church she didn’t agree with, she decided to take it to her neighbor, albeit as subtly as she could. Already one to overindulge when it comes to holiday lighting, Lexi chose to mount 10,000 Christmas lights on the bushes lining her house – in the colors of the rainbow. The LGBTQ rainbow.

The neighbor told Magnusson that she had moved to protect her children from the dangers of a gay lifestyle.

“She said that she wanted to get her children away from that sort of influence and people making that ‘lifestyle’ OK,” Magnusson explained. Yeah, well, it sounds like Lexi’s neighbor might have to move again.

After she’d put up her lights, Magnusson shared the photo on Reddit, where it quickly gathered several thousand up-votes and tons of support for her actions. But to Magnusson, it was the feedback from her gay cousin that meant the most.

“I felt good the entire time I put them up,” she says. “I sent a text to my cousin who loves Christmas lights like I do, and who is also gay. His approval was everything.”

As if she weren’t hero enough, Lexi explained how she rebutted her bigoted neighbor, and how a well-timed snack helped her keep her cool in the face of such hatred.

“I responded only with, ‘Your kids are going to be exposed to this no matter where you take them. Kids these days get it. They know not to be horrible to other kids based on how they were born,’” she said. “Then I walked inside and rage-ate a bowl of nachos.”

Ah, rage-eating in the face of intolerance. It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas!