Mike Pence's New Neighbors Are Trolling Him With Gay Pride Flags

Mike Pence’s new neighbors are giving the Vice President-elect an extremely gay welcome to Washington D.C. Before the Vice President-elect moves into the VP’s mansion on the U.S. Naval Observatory grounds, the Pence family are temporarily moving into a house on a street in NW D.C. The surrounding homeowners have taken to hanging up rainbow flags, a go-to symbol for the LGBTQ community, outside their homes as a way to send a message to Pence, who has a long history of opposing gay rights and the minority group as a whole.

After the initial shock of Donald Trump and Pence’s surprise win on Election Day, the reality of a Trump administration has since settled in. It may be a couple of months until he fully takes over from President Obama, but plenty of people have found different ways of expressing their dissatisfaction. Many took to the streets to protest immediately after the results. But the barrage of rainbow flags that Pence will have to face while strolling through his temporary neighborhood is a creative and calm way to push back against a man who has supported a constitutional amendment to ban marriage equality and ineffective (and dangerous) conversion therapy for LGBTQ people, among other horrible things he’s done to harm the community.

WJLA reports that about half a dozen pride flags have popped up around the block, with more on the way. Neighbor Ilse Heintzen said, “This is one way that I can show my disagreement.”

This isn’t the first time Pence’s opposition has found ways to troll the Vice President-elect. Since the election, Planned Parenthood has received 72,000 donations in his name. He gets a thank you note via email for each of the donations, even though he himself is staunchly opposed to abortion and women’s control over their own bodies.

While rainbow flags and emails from Planned Parenthood might be witty ways to send a message to Pence, it’s unclear if they’ll actually change the way he thinks. And if that’s the case, it’s important to remember that there’s plenty of other ways to advocate for the rights of women and LGBTQ people.

Nonetheless, it’s still pretty funny to think about Pence being blasted with a flurry of colors.