Some Neighbors Aren’t Happy After He Painted His House The Colors Of The Pride Flag

Across the street from the anti-gay Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas, stands the brightly painted Equality House. After Aaron Jackson purchased the home in 2012, he painted the residence the same color as the rainbow Pride flag. The idea came to Jackson as soon as he saw the home across the street from the church go on sale. He got right to work planning everything he needed to do in order to purchase the home and get it painted to mirror the colors of the rainbow Pride flag.

Jackson has since founded a global nonprofit called Planting Peace. The goal of the non-governmental organization is to advocate for the LGBTQ community as well as promote other important initiatives like environmental conservation. However, Jackson knew that if he could purchase the home across the street from the Topeka location of the Westboro Baptist Church, he could send a message to everyone who attended the church location.

The Westboro Baptist Church famously does not support rights and equality for members of the LGBTQ community, according to the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation or GLAAD. The Southern Poverty Law Center goes as far as to label the church an extremist and anti-gay religious group.

The Westboro Baptist Church is founded on an anti-gay initiative. The organization’s website includes an anti-gay slur in the website address. The website is “God Hates F**s,” which offends many members of the LGBTQ community.

In 2012, Planting Peace officially purchased the home across the street from the Topeka church. After the purchase was closed, Jackson and a colleague moved into the home. In a matter of months, the home had been repainted to mirror the colors of the Pride flag. In March 2013, the Equality House was officially brought to the world.

 

 

At the time his Equality House was unveiled, Jackson spoke to The Topeka Capital-Journal and expressed his desire to know how the extremist church would respond to the display.

“This isn’t us trying to start a war with them or anything of that nature,” he said. “This is just, they believe one thing, and we believe another. We’re opposing their view.”

In response, a spokesman for the church, Steve Drain, confessed that Jackson was not taking a new approach. Via email, Drain said that the church thanked God for the “Sodomite Rainbow House” because the church sees it as yet another example of how sodomy is ruining America.

“This is not a novel idea — there are hundreds of similarly painted houses around the world — the only reason why this one is a story is because of where it is!” Drain wrote.

Contractor Mike McKessor was hired to paint the Equality House. He lived about an hour from the site and remarked how local contractors seemed afraid to take on the church with the statement paint job. However, McKessor eagerly accepted the job because Westboro Baptist Church harasses veterans and members of the American military. He is a veteran himself.

“I don’t like them messing with veterans,” he said. Westboro Baptist Church members often picket troops’ funerals.