On a recent morning, there was a LGBTQ+ flag in my mailbox, encased in plastic and accompanied by a lengthy note which was a computer printout. I was told that I was “gifted” with this flag, and was welcomed to display it outside my home. The note was addressed as coming from my neighbor.

Personally, I would have felt more welcomed if there was a name attached to it, rather than “Your neighbor,” especially since my neighbor said that “we live on Haywood Street.” Furthermore, the essentially unidentifiable delivery is not an official postal package and, therefore, putting it in my mailbox is illegal.

I’ve seen these flags on a few nearby houses recently. A neighbor messaged me four days ago, said he received one and asked if I had. Unless the deliverer ran out of flags at the time, I’m curious why some people received one at other times while I got mine on a different day. I feel less welcomed than monitored to see if I will, in fact, display the flag.

The second paragraph begins, “In the past few years, there have been more and more anti-LGBTQ+ laws, and a rise in harassment and violence against LGBTQ+ people (even here).”

This is a lie. The laws they are speaking of are in fact the result of individuals, many of them parents, who are rightly opposed to being coerced into this ideology, including having the idea of gender dysphoria — the biologically unnatural conflation of sex and gender — shoved down their throats and those of their children.

As for harassment, that’s definitely the pot calling the kettle black, given that anyone who brings up reasonable criticisms is immediately labeled “anti-them” and insulted by a venomous mob. And in regard to violence, physical violence and death threats are a standard part of their playbook.

This cult, which has since co-opted the LGB community, is a corporatized mass movement masquerading as grass roots. The only human rights with which people should concern themselves are those of people who are trampled under their boot. A combination of massive mainstream media suppression and disinformation, and social engineering that targets the misplaced compassion and guilt of well-meaning people, helps this cult to maintain its strength.

Meanwhile, I find myself wondering what the “+” entails. One consideration is intersex people, whose chromosomal configuration is based in biological reality and not invasive cosmetic injections and/or surgery. They, too, would prefer to not be part of this cult.

The last paragraph begins, “Thank you for considering this simple act of solidarity.” A simple act of life-affirming solidarity would be if everyone who received these multicolored sheets of toxic fabric refused to hang them, since willingly displaying them entails complicity, much of it innocent, in authoritarianism.

“My neighbor,” at the end, prefaces that moniker by saying “With warmth.” Nuclear reactors have warmth. That doesn’t mean they are safe to be around.

Kevin J. Smith lives in Greenfield.