HOA Scandal: LGBTQ+ Burleson Couple Claim Discrimination Over Rainbow Yard Sign

Amy Cooley indulged the urge to knock on the HOA president’s door. She wanted to face the man who’d sent the homophobic texts, for him to know that she and her wife are just regular people.

She’d caught wind that Marvin Morton, then-HOA leader of her Burleson neighborhood, had taken issue with a garden display tucked in her front yard: a 12-by-18-inch rainbow sign.

Even though Cooley knew that Morton was home – she happened to see him pull in – he didn’t answer. A “cowardly” response, as far as Cooley was concerned. She’d been shocked at how hateful and aggressive Morton’s messages had been to his fellow HOA board members.

“I was raised and lived most of my adult life in a very conservative world,” Cooley, a native Texan, said. “So I’m well aware of what people think, but this is just blew right past any of my expectations.”

Plenty of Cooley’s neighbors also plant signs in their own front yards, ones celebrating the holidays or cheering on high school-aged kids. But as far as Cooley understands it, no one else had been targeted for theirs.

Cooley’s suspicions were all but confirmed when she saw Morton’s texts, messages that ultimately prompted another member to resign in protest.

“The gays do not need to influence our kids they are having a hard enough time as it is,” Morton wrote in one, as first reported by Dallas Voice. “The fags need to get back in their closet and leave the kids alone!”

Cooley and her wife just want to be treated fairly. But they allege that they were discriminated against when they were made to cough up a $45 fine.

It wasn’t just about the money for them. It was also the principle.

Another HOA board member at the time, Kirbi Gibbons, teaches chemistry at Burleson High School. Three of Cooley’s children attend that campus, although they don’t take Gibbons’ class.

“Any pride flag is a no go for me,” Gibbons wrote to Morton and the other HOA board members in a series of messages. “They singled themselves out putting it out front. I’m not flying a straight flag. They are more than welcome to relocate it to the back yard. I just got hit really hard at school this year with the gay bi trans bs and this is just propaganda for that. It’s not right.”

Gibbons’ texts were disturbing to Cooley. If that’s how the teacher speaks about the LGBTQ+ community, then how might she treat vulnerable students in the classroom?

Connie L. Cooley, Amy’s wife, recalled feeling “floored” by the texts: “It was like our worst thought that we could think, is these people are trying to kick us out of the neighborhood. They’re calling us names. They’re assuming all of these things. This, for this garden sign?”

Morton and Gibbons have since resigned from the board. They, along with Burleson ISD, did not return the Observer‘s requests for comment.

Burleson resident Clay Singleton’s yard features a sign honoring his tuba-player kid, but he told the Observer that he’s never received a similar complaint, despite living across from the Cooleys. They’re great neighbors, he said, people that anyone would want to live near.

“The whole HOA thing is just absolutely ridiculous,” he said.

Another nearby couple told Dallas Voice that they’ve kept year-round decorations in their own yard. In more than 10 years, they haven’t been slapped with violation notices or been made to fill out forms. “I think it’s so stupid that the HOA is putting those ladies through that,” one of the neighbors told that outlet. “It’s discrimination, no doubt about it.”

Morton’s former HOA board colleague, Calvin Brown, saw it that way too. He was so disgusted by the texts that he resigned.

Brown reached out to the Cooleys and showed them the homophobic text messages at their home. To him, it looked like the couple might cry. “It was really sad,” he said. “It’s just not right what [the other board members] did.”

Eventually, the pro-LGBTQ+ organization Equality Texas got involved. Spokesperson Johnathan Gooch told the Observer via email that scenarios like this “expose a real shortcoming in Texas law” and called for nondiscrimination protections statewide.

Gooch also pointed out that 75% of Texans polled in one survey expressed support for LGBTQ+ nondiscrimination laws. Legislators, he said, “need to start paying attention.” He encourages folks to contact Equality Texas for help when they experience discrimination.

Or, as Connie framed it: “Why should I have to pay $45 for somebody else’s prejudice and discrimination?”

Some recent developments have sprung from the HOA scandal. Brown is back on the board, this time as vice president. The Cooleys received a check for $45 as reimbursement for the fine. The law firm representing the HOA emailed them an apology. And the board has adopted an ethical code of conduct. “No more targeting people because of their beliefs, gender, etc.,” Brown said.

Connie told the Observer last month that she’d been experiencing some sleepless nights. Today, she said, that’s improved.

But, Connie knows that the pair who expressed those homophobic views are out there. Even though she’s not worried about the “two bigots” bothering her family again, they likely still believe the same things. She hopes that they don’t act on them in the future, especially since other targets may not be willing or able to call them out.

Speaking in December, Connie cited a quote from popular podcast host and author Brené Brown: “People are hard to hate close up.” Not feeling wholly safe in their neighborhood was terrible. Amy noted that they purchased a Ring doorbell camera, just in case.

Connie said that she and Amy “deserve to live here as much as anybody else, and we deserve to have a rainbow yard sign if we choose – just like other people choose to put out their student-is-a-senior sign or their TCU fan or, you know, ‘Merry Christmas.’

“Whatever it is,” she added, “we deserve to be treated the same.”