Pittsburgh Gay Couple Gets Eerie Letter After Election—Now They’re Scared

A woman in Pittsburgh and her wife have received a “hateful” letter after displaying a rainbow flag in support of LGBTQ+ pride and an “anti-Trump” flag outside their home.

The note, which was mailed anonymously to the home with the sender’s name listed as “O. Rangeman” and a return address of the White House, arrived on November 8. The letter was posted on November 6, according to a date on the envelope, Sondra Goller, the 34-year-old woman, told Newsweek.

Images of the letter and the envelope were shared in a November 8 post on Reddit by Goller under the username SondraBurnsRed. The post was captioned: “These are the neighbors showing their true selves in Brookline [a neighborhood in Pittsburgh].”

The pictures have since been removed from the post by the moderators of the r/pittsburgh subforum on Reddit but were shared with Newsweek by Goller.

The letter’s message reads: “Greetings s***lib. Hey after your done crying in that flag of yours would you sell it to me? Your salty tears will sustain me for the next 4 years.”

The poster reported the incident to the police after the letter sparked further intimidation, including the theft of a yard sign she created using the letter.

Goller said: “The flag I have up is a rainbow flag on a flagpole on my front porch,” noting that she “more recently put up an anti-Trump flag.”

She noted: “The return address [on the envelope] is obviously fake—it’s the White House and the sender is ‘O. Rangeman,’ so [it’s] obviously fake.”

The recent Reddit post comes after Donald Trump made the greatest political comeback in modern U.S. history, claiming victory in the 2024 presidential election, including a win of the vote in the battleground state of Pennsylvania.

Trump’s opponent Kamala Harris’ performance among LGBTQ+ voters was stronger than that of any Democratic candidate in the past five presidential elections.

Harris led Trump 86 percent to 12 percent among LGBTQ+ voters, according to the NBC News Exit Poll, marking a 15-point change from 2020 when Trump won 27 percent of the LGBTQ+ vote against President Joe Biden.

Newsweek has contacted a representative for Donald Trump and the Pittsburgh Police via email for comment.

According to The Trevor Project’s 2024 U.S. National Survey on the Mental Health of LGBTQ+ Young People, “a record number of anti-LGBTQ+ policies have been introduced and implemented in the last year.”

A vast majority (90 percent) of LGBTQ+ young people said their well-being was negatively impacted due to recent politics, while more than half (53 percent) said their well-being was negatively impacted by politics a lot, the survey found.

More than a third (39 percent) said that “they or their family have considered moving to a different state because of anti-LGBTQ+ politics and laws,” according to the survey of over 18,000 LGBTQ+ young people ages 13 to 24 across the U.S.

‘I’m Afraid Now’

The arrival of the letter in the recent Reddit post was not the first time Goller and her wife had experienced harassment in Pittsburgh, where they have lived for almost eight years.

“We have gotten letters on our cars and we aren’t sure who they are, telling us things like ‘f*** off,'” she explained, but “this is the first one directly mailed to me.”

Goller doesn’t know which of her neighbors mailed the letter, but she “did respond by making the hateful letter into a yard sign,” placing the printed note prominently in front of her home.

“Not even 12 hours after I put the sign up it was stolen,” she said, noting that she immediately added an extra camera to her property.

She said: “I did go and have another sign made. That’s when I finally called the police, for the letter and then the theft.” Goller said she was told by the police that the letter would be classified as a “hate crime.”

The harassment has left Goller and her wife feeling increasingly unsafe in their own neighborhood.

“We definitely feel unsafe,” she shared, describing the additional security measures she’s taken, including installing a new camera on her porch and adding “no trespassing” and “camera” signs.

“We have a Ring doorbell cam, and a Ring camera in the corner of my porch ceiling,” Goller said. “Also have one on my back porch. I added another camera on top of my railing looking down my steps and onto the sidewalk just in case some retaliation happens.”

The Reddit user described how the recent incidents have heightened her fears about public displays of affection and her general safety as a gay woman. “My wife is more afraid than I am. She recently signed up for her concealed carry permit and we will be buying a firearm for her to carry to help her protect herself,” she said.

Goller noted: “I am a white woman, gay, and married. Of course I’m afraid now. I am afraid to hold my wife’s hand out in public. I dealt with that kind of hate when I was a gay teenager, I never thought that this would be my future.”

Noting that she feels “a little more unsafe especially after the election,” Goller said. “I feel people are more bold to show their hatefulness, homophobia and xenophobia.”

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