grinched

Triggered neighbor leaves homophobic Xmas gift from Hell

Melissa Sheehan opened a post-marked envelope on December 23 and was at first amused by its contents — a Christmas card with an image of Santa Claus toppled over in the snow. Then she read what was on the other side.

What she found was an angry, hand-written note signed by an anonymous neighbor who was triggered by the family’s pride flag outside. Sheehan, who lives with her wife, Kelly, and two teenage kids, shared it online:

“Sheehan’s – I drive by regularly and wanted to drop you a note about your signs and flags. I love your = and pride flag but if you are = why do you have to put it in everyones face? Seems you want to be special. Any functioning adult??? How did that work out for you. Record inflation, record illegals crossing, record debt, record low favorability rating for Joe the rapist even with a media that kisses his you fill in the blank. I don’t understand you people you would believe CNN, MSNBC, Rachel Maddow if they told you the sky was red. Just remember… you wanted this” the note read.

The letter was signed “your unequal neighbor.”

During the 2020 election, Melissa and Kelly displayed a sign outside their home endorsing “any functioning adult” for president. It was implied this group did not include Donald Trump.

“The sign was awesome,” Melissa told Mass Live. “There are so many people stopping, taking pictures of it so we left it up for quite a while.”

The sign has long since been taken down, but not forgotten by the angry neighbor. The Sheehans now display an equality flag, a transgender pride flag, and a Black Lives Matter flag.

The family was able to brush off the hate.

“As I’m reading the note, I really wasn’t angered. It was more laughing just out of the closed-mindedness of individuals,” Melissa said.

And when they shared it to their town’s Facebook page, supportive comments came pouring in.

“I wanted to share the beautiful Xmas card we received from an anonymous person in town. What I find crazy though, is this person didn’t sign the card when so much love went into it. You would think they want to take credit,” Kelly wrote.

One neighbor and family friend, Renee Considine, even asked to use the incident to raise money for the Trevor Project.

“If anything, we can turn some of the hate in this into some donations for the Trevor Project. It’s kind of a win-win for everybody,” Sheehan said. “It’s pretty nice to have such a good friend and ally living right next door.”

“I don’t think the letter is a full representation of our community,” Considine said. “Our community is amazing, wonderful place — supportive and loving and caring, and one that rallies together for any cause whether it’s this or someone is sick or someone needs help, our community is one that rallies together.”

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