I had a few other posts lined up, but then this happened:

Upon return from camping for the weekend, I checked our mail and inside was a delightful crap nugget of a letter from our HOA. Let’s rewind three months or so to Pride month. My girls and I decided we wanted to show our support big time this year, so we painted a rainbow welcome sign and hung it on our door. I painted the ally flag and put it in our front window. I hopped online and found the below sign that we stuck in our front yard.

I was a little bit worried that it wouldn’t hold up to the elements, but it’s done remarkably well. No one was prouder of our signs than our 12-year-old. She loves them, she gushes about them to her friends, and she was quick to point out that we didn’t have to take them down after Pride month, we could be supportive all year, which I was on board with 100%. Fast forward to me standing in our driveway reading the “Friendly Reminder” that “political signs” are not allowed unless there’s an election. Hold up, I thought, political? I had to glance at our front yard because I honestly didn’t know what the hell they were talking about. Our welcome sign? Political? I went from exhausted (from sleeping in a tent for three nights) to enraged in less than 10 seconds. I raged to my husband, I fumed to the neighbors. I went into crazy mode and zombie stalked the neighborhood taking pictures of all the other signs I saw. Quite a few of which were welcome signs. And I wondered, what is political about a welcome sign? A political sign is a sign showing support for an election candidate (I googled it). A welcome sign is a welcome sign.

Let’s pause here for a moment for the purpose of full disclosure. We have a long and turbulent history with our HOA. When we moved into our house we went to the annual meeting and was surprised that in a neighborhood of 200 homes, there was only a handful of homeowners there…that should have been our first clue. Long ago, in another lifetime, I worked at a HOA law firm. I spent my days arguing with homeowners on the validity of HOAs. They work to keep our property values high, sense of community, yadda yadda. What we learned quick was that in this neighborhood there was a rift the size of Montana between the board and the homeowners. Years of disdain and feuds and a bunch of drama that existed in the past, yet somehow kept getting thrown into the present. My husband volunteered for a board position, to explain all the bs he put up with would be a 10- page post. Last year he finally resigned. I guess there was a part of me that felt because of all the bullshit we put up with while he was on the board, we would be left alone. No such luck, they have deemed our welcome sign “political.”

The kicker is some of our neighbors agree. One argued it was political because it was what we “believe” and what we “support.” Supporting basic human rights and equality is political? Um, no. I don’t get me started on the belief part. Another made the point that if the HOA let us put up a political sign, they would have to let EVERYONE put up political signs, and he just doesn’t want to have to look at them *insert biggest eye roll in the universe here*.

There has also been support for us to keep the sign. One friend offered to pay any fines the HOA might charge us. A neighbor said she might put out her own sign. The 12-year-old was particularly excited about this idea. She wondered what the HOA would do if half the neighborhood suddenly had a sign just like ours. I know what I would do…laugh my ass off.

I decided to take a day to think about it, I was covered in about three days of filth and lacking a healthy dose of sleep…but I knew what my decision would be. If I take down the sign, what am I teaching my children? That one can support human rights by being a good human until others complain and then you need to acquiesce to their request, we don’t want to offend people after all…ugh, gross. The sign stays. When I told my family the 12-year-old hugged me fiercely and I realized how much the sign meant to her. It means that we are humans that accept everyone, that welcome everyone, and what the hell is political about that? Nothing.

Dear HOA, please keep your politics off my lawn…;)