It wasn’t until the “Hate Has No Home Here” sign vanished from my lawn the day my husband and I posted it, that it occurred to me that hate might have a home in my community, or at least my neighborhood.

The sign disappeared within hours of being posted, a sharp contrast to a neighbor’s “Lord of Life Church” sign that was on display for months. I read this different kind of “sign” loud and clear: It was going to take more than lawn messages to move national social justice movements into my community. If hate was going to get packing, locals like me needed to do some heavy lifting.

But were there locals like me? Two years in our quaint southeastern Wisconsin suburb was long enough to know that in our conservative, evangelical community, a feminist like me is a minority. This was clear when our city made statewide headlines for limiting high school diversity education after the mention of white privilege at an MLK Day assembly sparked parental outrage. It’s one thing to be a predominantly white, middle- to upper-middle-class community like ours; it’s another to be unwilling to admit our privilege exists — let alone discuss it with our children.

My city was again on display in the news when the Freedom From Religion Foundation, a national nonprofit group committed to preserving the separation of church and state, called for removal of two 50 year-old city signs. The signs feature the words “The Churches of ********** Welcome You” featuring the name of our city next to Christian crosses. People were generally disgusted by the suggestion that there’s anything wrong with the signs, insisting that they are welcoming and inviting.

I wonder whether those in favor would defend city signs that read, “The People of ********** Welcome You,” featuring Pride flags or Islamic symbols? Although I’d happily fund such an effort, I don’t think it would garner the same support. The truth is all are not equally welcome in their churches. For them, the signs send a different message. But maybe that’s the point and, either way, the signs still stand.