A couple living in a suburb outside of Chicago had their rainbow flag stolen from a flagpole in their backyard a few weeks ago — and replaced with an American flag.

Casey Handal and Zadette Rosado have only been living in the neighborhood, with their two young children, for six months. The fact that they’re the only openly gay couple in the area certainly made the theft and flag replacement feel targeted.

“I think if somebody would have just taken the flag and not replaced it with anything, that wouldn’t necessarily have sent quite the same message,” Handel told the Chicago Tribune.

But after sharing the story with neighbors via the Nextdoor app, the community really stepped up.

Neighbor Kimberly Filian ordered dozens of small rainbow flags and offered them up to everyone. Now the whole neighborhood is decorated with the symbol of LGBTQ pride.

“I felt like it was one thing I could do to show support — just something little,” she said.

And other neighbors clearly agreed, putting the flags up around their homes, their yards, their mailboxes, even in the midst of Christmas decorations.

“Just because somebody’s gay doesn’t mean they’re wrong, doesn’t mean they’re bad,” another neighbor, Robert Colvin, said. “It just means they’re a little different and that’s just fine. That’s America. That’s what it should be, anyway.”

Handal is grateful not only for the support their community is showing them, but also what it’s teaching their children.

“We said look at what all the good people are doing, look at all the nice people in the world,” she told WGN9. “For every bad person, there’s 100 nice people, And it is a really good lesson for them, and for all the children in the neighborhood, to see that there’s good in this world and it always outweighs the bad.”