Aaron Jackson's charity Planting Peace
has purchased a house which sits across from the Westboro Baptist
Church and painted it rainbow colors to symbolize gay pride.
The house was painted by a team of
volunteers on Tuesday.
The Topeka, Kansas-based Westboro
Baptist Church, infamous for coining the phrase “God Hates Fags,”
has said its members protest the funerals of fallen American soldiers
because they died protecting a nation which supports homosexuality.
“I'm a straight ally,” Jackson told
CNN, “as one would say.”
Jackson's charity plans to run
anti-bullying campaigns out of what is being called “Equality
House.”
“We want this house to be a message
that where there's hate, there's also love,” Jackson told The
Huffington Post. “But we also want to raise awareness and
capital, and we want to put all the money into creating and
sustaining anti-bullying programs, along with supporting
anti-bullying programs that already exist. Beyond the symbolic
message of the home, it will be utilized by volunteers to live here,
and these volunteers will work on promoting equality anywhere in the
world and managing these anti-bullying initiatives that we plan on
creating.”
In a statement sent to CNN, Westboro
Baptist Church said that Equality House was a blessing.
“We thank God for the sodomite
Rainbow House!” the church wrote. “It is right across the street
from the ONLY church that loves people enough to tell them the Bible
truth about the filthy, soul-damning nation-destroying sin of sodomy.
… The Sodomite Rainbow house helps shine a bright spotlight on
this!”