The radical Westboro Baptist church and its ideologies are well known. The Westboro Baptist is a militantly anti-gay religious group.
Even the church’s website URL contains a homophobic phrase. However, in the face of homophobia, this individual wished to spread a message of inclusion and optimism.
Aaron Jackson came across a house listed for sale in Topeka, Kansas, in 2012. The Westboro Baptist Church, a place of worship primarily dedicated to anti-gay propaganda, was directly across the street from the residence.
Jackson had the bright notion to buy the house and paint it rainbow right away.
Aaron intended to use the paint to communicate with his community as the creator of Planting Peace, a global organization whose projects include environmental preservation and LGBTQ advocacy campaigns.
The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) reports that numerous churches and other religious organizations support LGBTQ+ rights and ways of life. The Westboro Baptist Church, on the other hand, is obviously not one of them.
The organization is a well-documented extreme and anti-gay organisation, aside from the LGBT insult in their website address, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.
As a result, Jackson and a coworker moved into the house that Planting Peace had bought in October 2012. According to Zillow’s property records, the home was then worth $81,400.
By March 2013, the house had been painted in vivid rainbow hues modeled after the Pride flag’s colors. The house eventually acquired the name “Equality House”.
The mansion soon caught the attention of the media due to its message and vibrant colors.
The home, according to Jackson, wasn’t “us trying to start a war with them or anything of that nature,” according to The Topeka-Capital Journal in 2013. Simply put, they have one set of beliefs while we hold another. We disagree with their viewpoint.
In a statement sent to the Los Angeles Times at about the same time, the Westboro Baptist Church referred to the house as the “Sodomite Rainbow House.”
The group also wrote Insider in response, saying, “The only equality you need to worry about is that every human being equally deserves to go to hell.”
The Equality Home, the Church continued in the same statement, was “a monument to glorify sin,” and those responsible for it “mock, rebel against, and show their hatred for the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Jackson expected the house to be temporary, yet it is still there today. Instead, Planting Peace has kept ownership, and the house has come to resemble the organization’s headquarters.
According to the nonprofit organization’s website, the Equality House serves “as a visual reminder of our commitment, as global citizens, to equality for all.”
Since March 2013, many people have visited the house, according to Jackson. Jackson has stated that although the home is off-limits to the general public, visitors are permitted to stroll around the lawn and take pictures of it.
According to Jackson, the mansion typically has 150 visitors per day during a normal year, but during the pandemic, the daily average fell to 20 to 40 people. Instagram users have posted a lot of pictures from their travels.
According to Jackson, the home’s numerous visits are proof that the majority of the populace has expressed acceptance of the building and its message.
Jackson asserted that Planting Peace has been the recipient of hate mail for years, and NBC News reported in October 2016 that the home has been trashed for months. According to the network, seven bullet holes and anti-gay graffiti were discovered by the police inside the house.
According to Jackson’s interview with Insider, he was present at the shooting.He claimed that a few weeks or months prior to the incident, a person who claimed to be a member of the Ku Klux Klan visited his home and forewarned him of potential homophobic violence before the presidential election. The perpetrators of the vandalism were never found.
Jackson clarified that despite the vandalism in 2016, Planting Peace remained within the home.
Ironically, Westboro Baptist Church members visited the house on surveillance camera after the event to see if the members of Planting Peace would appreciate it. Jackson also claimed that he texted members of the Westboro Baptist Church to inform them that individuals were scaling the church’s fence.
Jackson added that despite having sharply divergent ideologies, the two organizations nonetheless maintain good relations and are always pleasant when members cross paths on the street.
From a neighborly perspective, we get along just great, he remarked.
Jackson thinks that the house’s symbolism conveys the most significant message.
“A Pride house will always be shown whenever a picture of the Westboro Baptist Church is shown. That was my main goal, he declared.
When LGBTQ children see the house, Jackson said, he hopes they “realize that they’re not less than, that they’re equal to all of us, even though messages out there from people like the Westboro Baptist Church preach that they’re somehow less than right.”
Share your thoughts with us on this emblem that Planting Peace has made for people!
