LGBTQ

LGBT+ youth leaves heart-warming letter for mum who put up Pride flag in small town

After an Arkansas mother put up a Progress Pride flag on her home, she received an adorable note from a queer youth. (Stephanie Robertson/Instagram)

A mother has received an adorable handwritten note from an LGBT+ youth all for hanging a Progress Pride flag outside her home in Paris, Arkansas all Pride Month-long.

At a time when state lawmakers are cruelly curtailing the rights of trans youth, 52-year-old Stephanie Robertson hoisted up a rainbow flag bought by her son, Levi, to celebrate LGBT+ Pride Month.

But Stephanie, a retired lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve, was shocked to open up her mailbox on Friday (2 July) and discover a letter written on a small, crumpled piece of notebook paper.

“Hello, this is probably kinda weird,” the letter began, “but I walk past your house every day and I’ve noticed your flag and I’m glad to know there is at least one ally in this little town – from a young LGBTQ+ person.”

Cue the tears.

Arkansas mum was ‘excited’ to hang up Progress Pride flag 

“I got her and a bunch of friends the progress pride flag last year,” Levi, a 30-year-old who works in e-commerce logistics, told PinkNews.

“She was excited to hang it up for the first time this year and kept it hanging up outside her home all throughout June.

“She texted me yesterday and was like, ‘you’re not gonna believe the letter I found in our mailbox,’ and sent me a photo of the letter.

“I immediately called her and told her how profound and awesome it was that her hanging it made a child feel seen. She agreed and kept saying how she couldn’t get over how sweet it was.”

After Levi shared the note on Twitter, which tallied more than 44,500 retweets and around 650,000 likes, Stephanie has received an absolute outpouring of love and praise – and a lot of tears – from fans.

Stephanie has lived in Paris, a city in Logan County of some 3,500 people, since 2014, having raised Levi and his two brothers in Harrison. She now works part-time as a support specialist for the Forest Service at Ozark St Francis National Forest.

She is “completely deserving of all the attention cause she’s such an incredible person”, Levi said.

Levi added that, considering the incredible response the flag has received, she’s going to keep her show of solidarity up all year-round, rather than just for one month – and maybe corporations should take note of that, to be honest.

“She’s going to find a Progress Pride flag window sticker for the front of her house to keep up all year!” Levi said.

“She was just happy that so many other people were celebrating a child feeling validated.”

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