U.S. Vice-President Mike Pence and family were greeted by a rainbow-coloured “Make America Gay Again” banner when they arrived at their Aspen, Colo. holiday home.
The banner was draped on a stone pillar located at the end of the driveways to Pence’s home and that of a cheeky neighbour, the Aspen Times reported.
Pitkin County Sheriff Joe DiSalvo told the Aspen Times that one of his deputies was present when a man emerged from his home and draped the banner over a stone pillar.
He said the man and other neighbours have been “really nice” to authorities.
“He was real sheepish and thought he might be confronted by the Secret Service or deputies who’d tell him he couldn’t do it,” DiSalvo said. “When they said ‘We’re not here to control your free speech rights,’ they came out with chili and began feeding them.”
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This isn’t the first time that Pence’s neighbours have taken it upon themselves to deliver a message of LGBTQ tolerance to the staunchly conservative Republican.
In November 2016, residents of a northwest Washington, D.C. street greeted the then-vice-president-elect with rainbow-coloured flags when he briefly moved into their block.
“This is one way that I can show my disagreement,” one woman told WJLA-TV at the time.
Things escalated further in January when activists held an outdoor “Queer Dance Party” in the neighbourhood, complete with rainbow flags, glow sticks and hula hoops.
WATCH: Gay rights activists dance in protest against VP-elect Mike Pence
Pence has regularly been criticized for signing a law as Indiana governor that many say sanctions discrimination against LGBTQ customers. The legislature later reversed course.
He has also been accused of being a proponent of “conversion therapy,” a practice which purports to change individuals’ sexual orientation via spiritual intervention.
READ MORE: California’s ban on ‘gay conversion’ therapy upheld by Supreme Court
Pence’s election was hailed by the Family Research Council, a conservative Christian lobbying group that supports and promotes conversion therapy, which has been discredited by medical and mental health experts.
In March, a senior fellow for the group told ABC News that he was confident that the election of Trump and Pence would make it “unlikely that any sort of legislative – federal legislative attack upon sexual reorientation therapy will… go anywhere.”
— With a file from The Associated Press
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