Connie and Amy Cooley with their rainbow yard sign
Former Burleson HOA faces discrimination allegations
CAROLINE SAVOIE | Contributing Writer
CaroSavoWrites@gmail.com
Calvin Brown resigned from the board of his neighborhood’s homeowners association in Burleson recently after he got a series of texts from his fellow board members over whether or not a lesbian couple in the neighborhood should be fined for their yard sign.
“The gays do not need to influence our kids,” then-HOA President Marvin Morton wrote in one text. “They are having a hard enough time as it is. The fags need to get back in their closet and leave the kids alone!”
Connie and Amy Cooley have had a 12-inch-by-18-inch rainbow-colored sign in their front yard since they moved to the neighborhood in November 2022. In October 2023, the couple started receiving fines from their landlord on behalf of the Wakefield HOA, which oversees 519 homes in Burleson.
This home down the street from the Cooleys has a number of yard signs. Any sign not related to a holiday is a violation of HOA rules
Brown said the problem started in October after Morton, former president of the Wakefield HOA, said another board member, Kirbi Gibbons, brought the couple’s sign to his attention. Morton messaged the board’s group text asking what other members thought.
“Any pride flag is a no go for me,” Gibbons wrote. “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 with the gay bi trans bs and this is just propaganda for that. It’s not right.”
Gibbons is a teacher at Burleson High School, a school three of Amy’s children attend.
“People are welcome to think whatever they want,” Connie said of the homophobic texts. “It’s when they start combining their prejudice with their power to discriminate against us that I have a problem.”
Connie said she started getting yard sign violation notices in October, so she asked the neighborhood Facebook group if other people were getting fined for their signs. “They said no, and that planted the seed that we were only getting fined because our sign has rainbow colors,” Connie said.
Connie said she and Brown called SBB Community Management, a company that manages HOAs like Wakefield in Texas, to dispute the violation on the basis of discrimination. Brown informed the company that board members were overtly targeting Cooley’s home because of her sexuality.
“We had a hunch, but after Calvin showed us those screenshots, we had evidence,” Connie said.
The HOA’s attorney, a lawyer at Riddle & Williams, after seeing Gibbons’ and Morton’s text messages, said the two board members had to stop requesting that SBB fine the couple.
Amy said because they rent their home, and SBB sends violations to their landlord, they had to pay the fees. But the Cooleys want that money back from the HOA.
“Both of our neighbors — across the street and to the side of us — have signs and flags all over their yards,” Connie pointed out.
She said she learned that, according to HOA bylaws, residents must fill out a form, send it to the HOA and then wait for approval or denial before putting signs in their yards.
Directly across from the Cooley home sits a house with one sign in the front yard double the size of the Cooleys’. The renter, Clayton, said he’s lived in the neighborhood for three years, and the HOA hasn’t ever called in a violation for his yard signs.
“It’s dumb, what’s happening to them,” Clayton said. “I’ve had yard signs out the entire time I’ve lived here, and I’ve never been fined or asked to fill out a form.”
The home across the street also has yard signs
Next door, Rick and Jane Mackey gave the same story. They’ve owned their home in the neighborhood for 15 years. The couple said they’ve kept yard signs out year-round, and, in more than a decade, they’ve never filled out a form or received a violation notice for their decorations.
“I think it’s so stupid that the HOA is putting those ladies through that,” Jane Mackey said. “It’s discrimination, no doubt about it.”
Morton resigned from the board at the HOA’s attorney’s suggestion on Nov. 26, Brown said. Amy saw him outside his home in November and went over to speak to him, but he went inside and refused to answer the door, she said.
“He can say a lot over those texts, but when he had the opportunity to look me in the eyes, he didn’t,” Amy said. “If you’re so strong in your beliefs, say them to my face.”
Brown, an engineer, said he was one of two board members that resigned over the discrimination debacle. Then, Morton and Gibbons resigned. Rick said the entire board has been dissolved, and homeowners were set to vote for a new board on Dec. 12.
Amy and Connie explained that because they’re renters, they don’t get to vote on HOA matters. Rick Mackey said 67 percent of the residents in the neighborhood rent their homes. Brown decided to re-enter himself as a candidate.
“Technically, Marvin and Kirbi followed the HOA’s rules, but they’re picking and choosing who the rules apply to,” Brown said. “That’s when it becomes discrimination.”
He said residents get three violation notices before the HOA imposes a fine. He said the Cooleys received one violation in June for a Pride Month flag, one a few weeks later for the 12×18-inch flag, and another for the same flag in October, when the $45 fee kicked in.
“We want that money back,” Connie said. “It’s not about the money; it’s about the principle of the matter. We don’t want Marvin and Kirbi to slink into the background and think they got away with this. Who knows how long they’ve been using their views to discriminate?”
Amy and Connie said they’re in touch with attorneys through Equality Texas.
“It’s a time consuming and exhausting process,” Connie said. “We both work. I’m a teacher and Amy is a social worker; we have nine kids, and every minute we’re not worried about them, we’re dealing with this. It would be easier to let this go, but we’re not those people. We will fight for what is right.”
Morton and Gibbons declined to comment on the matter.