{"id":466986,"date":"2022-06-23T16:53:38","date_gmt":"2022-06-23T13:53:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/a-rainbow-house-beaming-with-pride\/"},"modified":"2022-06-23T16:53:38","modified_gmt":"2022-06-23T13:53:38","slug":"a-rainbow-house-beaming-with-pride","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/a-rainbow-house-beaming-with-pride\/","title":{"rendered":"#A rainbow house beaming with Pride"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_84 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a2e670da92be\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a2e670da92be\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-1'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/a-rainbow-house-beaming-with-pride\/#%E2%80%9CA_rainbow_house_beaming_with_Pride%E2%80%9D\" >&#8220;A rainbow house beaming with Pride&#8221;<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h1><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"%E2%80%9CA_rainbow_house_beaming_with_Pride%E2%80%9D\"><\/span>&#8220;A rainbow house beaming with Pride&#8221;<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h1>\n<div>\n                                                                        <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A few blocks south of downtown, a Lethbridge family is having a very busy start to the summer. In May, Kim and Mary Siever spent over 25 hours painting their home in the colours of the rainbow. In June during Pride month in Alberta, the Sievers have been receiving hundreds of visitors, greeting them with solidarity and sweets.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Pride celebrations in the large cities across Canada showcase big parades and bigger crowds. Alberta\u2019s Pride celebrations have always felt a little subdued, and more so in smaller communities. Lethbridge\u2019s rainbow-painted Pride crosswalks are vandalized every year with burn-out tire marks or cattle manure. Similar vandalism has h<a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a>ened elsewhere in Alberta, including Taber\u2019s Pride flag being set on fire twice in one year. The Siever family maintains that acts which celebrate acceptance and lift up queer folks in their community will have to be bolder than the vandalism.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">So, we painted our home. <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/vxXB95qIXW\">pic.twitter.com\/vxXB95qIXW<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Kim Siever (@kim_siever) <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/kim_siever\/status\/1528142380892753921?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 21, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Kim, a freelance journalist and stay-at-home parent, and his spouse Mary, a researcher and scholar, live in the rainbow house with four of their six children. The Sievers live in one of the older neighbourhoods in Lethbridge and have raised their family in this 110-year-old home for more than 16 years. Over the decades, their neighbourhood has become a patchwork of homes of different sizes, from large turreted houses built by judges and mayors, to so-called strawberry box houses built after the Second World War. Even among this eclectic mix of residences, with its bright Pride flag colours painted from top to bottom, the rainbow house stands out.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Kim &amp; Mary spoke with <em>Maclean\u2019s<\/em> about their freshly painted home and what kinds of reactions they\u2019ve experienced while showing their pride:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>How did the idea to paint your house like a rainbow come about?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Mary:<\/strong> We\u2019ve needed to paint this house for a very long time; the house needed painting before we bought it. And that was a long time ago!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Kim:<\/strong> There was a house in the neighbourhood that, every year for pride, the family would colour their steps. I would walk down there with my dog, so we used to see it every day. They had quite a few steps so all the colours of the rainbow fit. We thought it would be nice to do that, but we only have three steps. We decided to paint the entire house with a rainbow.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Having the exterior of your house go viral on <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/social-mediaa\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"1\" title=\"Social Media\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">social media<\/a> makes for a memorable Pride month. What was your relationship to Pride month in years past?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Kim: It was more of a support and ally-ship role previously, just to try and be supportive of people in the queer community.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Kim, you came out as queer, yourself, in your community and on social media during the pandemic. Is the Rainbow House a part of that celebration?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Kim: Yeah, it was during the same month that the province implemented pandemic restrictions, really early on. The restrictions haven\u2019t made it possible to hold public Pride events. This will be my first one. I don\u2019t think the house was necessarily connected to my coming out. It\u2019s already been a couple of years. We were just thinking of the broader community. We want to be able to provide a place of vibrancy and colour and hope.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>What has the response to your Rainbow House been like?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Kim: We\u2019ve given out over 350 bags of Skittles, and the vast majority of those people are with somebody else, so we estimate we\u2019ve had seven or eight hundred people visit.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mary: Large groups, smaller groups, or just a couple of people at a time.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Kim: On Saturday we had a wedding party on bikes and two dozen wedding guests came by to take pictures in front of the house\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Oh hello there Lethbridge Rainbow House! \ud83d\ude4b\u200d\u2642\ufe0f\ud83c\udfe0\ud83c\udf08<\/p>\n<p>Thank you Kim and Mary for spreading so much queer joy \ud83d\udc96 <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/QWRpPxfEW5\">pic.twitter.com\/QWRpPxfEW5<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Janis Irwin (@JanisIrwin) <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JanisIrwin\/status\/1538708247476989953?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 20, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><b>You painted your house in May and began giving out Skittles in June.\u00a0\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Kim: The Skittles part was specifically for Pride month. We had talked about it in May around the time we started painting. You know, see the rainbow, \u201ctaste the rainbow\u201d.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>As the Rainbow House giving out Skittles went viral, you\u2019ve had candy showing up at your door as well.\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mary: We\u2019ve met so many people. We haven\u2019t asked for Skittles, but we didn\u2019t realize there was going to be this response! Our initial plan to hand out Skittles would have gone well beyond our budgetary ability.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">People have just been so generous, giving anywhere from $5 to $100 to buy Skittles. Just this morning some workers and the vice-president of Black Velvet Distillery dropped off eight boxes of Skittles!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>How does this work? Is your doorbell constantly ringing?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Kim: Usually they don\u2019t ring the doorbell because we normally notice that there is someone there. Whether it is our dog barking or when Mary is working in her home office with the window open and she hears them.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Do you engage as soon as you see someone out there?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Kim: We usually wait and see if they are taking a picture, because that\u2019s when we get the Skittles out.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mary: We don\u2019t want to photobomb their pictures! We\u2019re waiting until they are done and then we will come out and say \u201cHi.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Went to the Rainbow House \ud83c\udf08 \ud83c\udfe1 in Lethbridge!!! \ud83d\udc9b So cute. Also got a bag of skittles from <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/kim_siever?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@kim_siever<\/a> and fam. \ud83e\udd70 <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/YQLocal?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#YQLocal<\/a> <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/yql?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#yql<\/a> <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/PrideMonth?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#PrideMonth<\/a> <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/cB4kgOyyPj\">pic.twitter.com\/cB4kgOyyPj<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Linda Hoang \ud83d\udc95 C\u1ea9m T\u00fa (She\/Her) (@lindork) <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/lindork\/status\/1539468361318293508?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 22, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><b>Were you hesitant about the location of your home going viral?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mary: We didn\u2019t talk about it too much. I mean, it was a little bit of a concern. I don\u2019t usually like to post my address or anything. Our teenagers were nerve-wracked about it at first, but when their friends showed them how much support it was getting online, they were like, \u201cOh! It\u2019s good now!\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>What advice do you have for folks, living in small communities in Canada, before they paint their own Rainbow House?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mary: Don\u2019t fear what other people say because it is your space! This is what I\u2019ve said to people who question what we\u2019ve done, we did this for us! Don\u2019t be afraid to stand out and you will find the people who support you. Small families with children are the most endearing. It\u2019s kind of neat that there are children who think this is a magical house. They\u2019re not thinking, \u201cOh, what are you doing this for?\u201d, they\u2019re thinking this looks like a magical place and a good place to be.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"under-article-widget-nl\">\n<p class=\"under-article-widget-title\">Looking for more?<\/p>\n<p class=\"under-article-widget-description\">Get the best of <em>Maclean<\/em>&#8216;s sent straight to your inbox. 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In May, Kim and Mary Siever spent over 25 hours painting their home in the colours of the rainbow. In June during Pride month in Alberta, the Sievers have been receiving&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":466987,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.macleans.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Rainbow2-766x431.jpeg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[130639,103130,71226],"class_list":["post-466986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-lgbt-rights","tag-pride","tag-real-estate"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466986","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=466986"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466986\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/466987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=466986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=466986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=466986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}