"Love always wins, sometimes with the help of a little boy and his rainbow balloons"

When life gives you bigots, all you need is a bundle of brightly colored balloons and a whole lot of persistence. Keanan Sargent, the 9-year-old son of Wisconsin state Rep. Melissa Sargent, found himself confronted by homophobia at a pride rally in Madison earlier this month. Sargent told The Huffington Post she was marching in the parade with her husband and two youngest sons, and the anti-gay protesters gathered at the base of the capitol building. The homophobic signs bore slogans like “gay sex is a sin” and “sodomy is the same as bestiality.” When her son noticed the signs “were hurting people,” he took a balloon and stood in front of one of them, according to fellow attendee Lars Koch, who took the below photo. When the sign holder tried to move around the solitary balloon, members of the crowd starting handing Keanan their balloons, too.

I’ve always told myself that if I’d had a child, I’d do everything I could to teach him or her to be able to distinguish between right and wrong and to stand up for those who may not be able to stand up for themselves. It seems Rep. Sargent has accomplished exactly that, and her son Keanan is a legitimate hero. He didn’t climb a mountain or win a war; he stood up for decency and fair treatment in a way that was nonviolent but very intentional.

It started with Keanan holding his balloons in front of an offensive anti-gay sign. Before long, that misguided hater rolled up his sign and left. Then Keanan moved and did the same to another sign. Before long, the remaining bigots left, defeated by a nine-year-old boy who understood, without having to be told, what the right thing was…and he did it, kindly, politely, and resolutely.

Turns out that when life gives you bigots, all you really need is a prescient nine-year-old boy with a finely-tuned moral compass and the willingness to do the right thing.