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| The recently-painted Equality House stands out in the snow. |
Aside from the Equality House, Planting Peace is primarily involved with charity work involving rainforest preservation, de-worming, and constructing orphanages. The following is their statement on the background and purpose of the Equality House:
"For too long, the Westboro Baptist Church has been targeting the LGBTQ community with messages of hate and discrimination. Often, protesting American soldiers’ funerals and organizations that support equality. This faction preaches extremism in our communities and directly targets our youth. To combat their messages of hate and to support equality and anti-bullying initiatives in schools and in our community, Planting Peace has established the Equality House in Topeka, KS.
Located directly across from the Westboro Baptist Church, the House is a symbol of equality, peace, and positive change. The house, which is painted the colors of the Pride flag, will serve as the resource center for all Planting Peace equality and anti-bullying initiatives and will stand as a visual reminder of our commitment, as global citizens, to equality for all."
At this time, it would appear that WBC has not made a statement yet regarding the Equality House.
In short: A new anti-protest targets the WBC to promote LGBTQ rights and support equality. Do you view this as a sort of novelty or a more powerful message?
For
too long, the Westboro Baptist Church has been targeting the LGBTQ
community with messages of hate and discrimination. Often, protesting
American soldiers’ funerals and organizations that support equality.
This faction preaches extremism in our communities and directly targets
our youth.
To combat their messages of hate and to support equality and
anti-bullying initiatives in schools and in our community, Planting
Peace has established the Equality House in Topeka, KS.
Located directly across from the Westboro Baptist Church, the House is a symbol of equality, peace, and positive change. The house, which is painted the colors of the Pride flag, will serve as the resource center for all Planting Peace equality and anti-bullying initiatives and will stand as a visual reminder of our commitment, as global citizens, to equality for all.
We invite you to support our movement and encourage you to donate today to these equality and anti-bullying initiatives. - See more at: http://www.plantingpeace.org/equality.htm#sthash.NBYYcNxB.dpufFor too long, the Westboro Baptist Church has been targeting the LGBTQ community with messages of hate and discrimination. Often, protesting American soldiers’ funerals and organizations that support equality. This faction preaches extremism in our communities and directly targets our youth. To combat their messages of hate and to support equality and anti-bullying initiatives in schools and in our community, Planting Peace has established the Equality House in Topeka, KS.
Located directly across from the Westboro Baptist Church, the House is a symbol of equality, peace, and positive change. The house, which is painted the colors of the Pride flag, will serve as the resource center for all Planting Peace equality and anti-bullying initiatives and will stand as a visual reminder of our commitment, as global citizens, to equality for all.
We invite you to support our movement and encourage you to donate today to these equality and anti-bullying initiatives.
Located directly across from the Westboro Baptist Church, the House is a symbol of equality, peace, and positive change. The house, which is painted the colors of the Pride flag, will serve as the resource center for all Planting Peace equality and anti-bullying initiatives and will stand as a visual reminder of our commitment, as global citizens, to equality for all.
We invite you to support our movement and encourage you to donate today to these equality and anti-bullying initiatives. - See more at: http://www.plantingpeace.org/equality.htm#sthash.NBYYcNxB.dpufFor too long, the Westboro Baptist Church has been targeting the LGBTQ community with messages of hate and discrimination. Often, protesting American soldiers’ funerals and organizations that support equality. This faction preaches extremism in our communities and directly targets our youth. To combat their messages of hate and to support equality and anti-bullying initiatives in schools and in our community, Planting Peace has established the Equality House in Topeka, KS.
Located directly across from the Westboro Baptist Church, the House is a symbol of equality, peace, and positive change. The house, which is painted the colors of the Pride flag, will serve as the resource center for all Planting Peace equality and anti-bullying initiatives and will stand as a visual reminder of our commitment, as global citizens, to equality for all.
We invite you to support our movement and encourage you to donate today to these equality and anti-bullying initiatives.
For
too long, the Westboro Baptist Church has been targeting the LGBTQ
community with messages of hate and discrimination. Often, protesting
American soldiers’ funerals and organizations that support equality.
This faction preaches extremism in our communities and directly targets
our youth.
To combat their messages of hate and to support equality and
anti-bullying initiatives in schools and in our community, Planting
Peace has established the Equality House in Topeka, KS.
Located directly across from the Westboro Baptist Church, the House is a symbol of equality, peace, and positive change. The house, which is painted the colors of the Pride flag, will serve as the resource center for all Planting Peace equality and anti-bullying initiatives and will stand as a visual reminder of our commitment, as global citizens, to equality for all.
We invite you to support our movement and encourage you to donate today to these equality and anti-bullying initiatives. - See more at: http://www.plantingpeace.org/equality.htm#sthash.NBYYcNxB.dpuf
Located directly across from the Westboro Baptist Church, the House is a symbol of equality, peace, and positive change. The house, which is painted the colors of the Pride flag, will serve as the resource center for all Planting Peace equality and anti-bullying initiatives and will stand as a visual reminder of our commitment, as global citizens, to equality for all.
We invite you to support our movement and encourage you to donate today to these equality and anti-bullying initiatives. - See more at: http://www.plantingpeace.org/equality.htm#sthash.NBYYcNxB.dpuf
For
too long, the Westboro Baptist Church has been targeting the LGBTQ
community with messages of hate and discrimination. Often, protesting
American soldiers’ funerals and organizations that support equality.
This faction preaches extremism in our communities and directly targets
our youth.
To combat their messages of hate and to support equality and
anti-bullying initiatives in schools and in our community, Planting
Peace has established the Equality House in Topeka, KS.
Located directly across from the Westboro Baptist Church, the House is a symbol of equality, peace, and positive change. The house, which is painted the colors of the Pride flag, will serve as the resource center for all Planting Peace equality and anti-bullying initiatives and will stand as a visual reminder of our commitment, as global citizens, to equality for all.
We invite you to support our movement and encourage you to donate today to these equality and anti-bullying initiatives. - See more at: http://www.plantingpeace.org/equality.htm#sthash.NBYYcNxB.dpuf
Located directly across from the Westboro Baptist Church, the House is a symbol of equality, peace, and positive change. The house, which is painted the colors of the Pride flag, will serve as the resource center for all Planting Peace equality and anti-bullying initiatives and will stand as a visual reminder of our commitment, as global citizens, to equality for all.
We invite you to support our movement and encourage you to donate today to these equality and anti-bullying initiatives. - See more at: http://www.plantingpeace.org/equality.htm#sthash.NBYYcNxB.dpuf
7 comments:
Unfortunately, I expect that the Westboro Baptist Church will respond to this, but hopefully they will have the decency to keep to only their usual levels of indecency, if that makes any sense. Vandalism seems like an "easy" way for them to retaliate, but perhaps Planting Peace has taken some measures to prevent any destruction of property.
As for the house itself, I think it is a wonderful gesture. I'm not sure how much of it is intended as a stunt or a novelty, but I suppose if Planting Peace is only after attention or a gimmick, there are worse ways to go about it. There are of course better ways to support equality, as well, but I don't think any genuine effort to do so can really be frowned upon.
I think this house is fabulous. It's great that Planting Peace is sending a message toward some of the most ignorant people on the face of the earth, and the Equality House seems like a perfect way to do it. I find it hilarious because it almost seems like a blatant "f*** you" to WBC. But like Eavan said above, they will probably face "harassment" from WBC in the near future. At the moment, I think the Equality House is more of a novelty, but has the potential to be something much, much more. Hopefully, WBC can learn its lesson and just keep to itself for once!
I have to agree with Eavan in that I too believe the Westboro Baptist Church will soon respond to the newly rainbow-painted LGBT pride house across the street; being notoriously homophobic however, I am unsure of whether the church’s reaction will be one of anger / disgust or one of passivity / ignorance. Painting the house as such is certainly making a statement, though I am doubtful that it is the right one. While the House may be a symbol of equality, peace, and positive change,” the House’s ridiculously close, in-your-face proximity to the WBC seems to contradict the “peaceful” purpose of the House itself. In my opinion, it seems distasteful and selfish to make such a spectacle, in what seems like an effort to overpower / overshadow the anti-gay ideology of the WBC.
I am in full support of the house and think it is a great symbol. I think it is such a powerful message because it shows the creators of it are not angry and have not lost their temper, but instead are just putting a sign up that will drive the WBC angry. Responding with anger and spite at the WBC is counterintuitive because they feed off of that anger and are always looking for more ways and opportunities to incite anger and get more press coverage because of that, but this is the perfect way to respond to the WBC. I look forward to see how the WBC replies to this house because it backs them into a corner that they cannot easily escape out of.
I believe that the house is both a novelty and a potentially powerful representation of bringing about equality and awareness amongst our generally un-accepting and ignorant society. It's true that the house may seem a little gimmicky and as Marvin described, a manifestation of a "f*** you," but it's also a work of art that's meant to leave a legacy. One of my art teachers once said that people often create structures, paintings, and songs, to simply leave behind a theme or belief that will not be forgotten by the public eye. These people want to leave an everlasting impression on the world. By painting a house, which serves as a shelter, perhaps Planting Peace has created a metaphorical safe haven to be used for generations to come. Or, perhaps I'm reading too deeply into things, and they just wanted to make a whimsy protest against the crude and homophobic remarks of the church. Either way, this house has potential!
I love this. And what's possibly even more satisfying, is knowing that the WBC can't do anything about it. The WBC membership includes some INCREDIBLE (unfortunately) lawyers. And they make most of their money from suing the people at protest when their insane blabbering of bigoted phrases prompts someone to throw something at them or fight back. The upside to their awareness about legal rights is that they know that they can't do anything about their neighbor's lovely display of gay-ness.
I agree that the Equality House is an "F*** You" to the WBC, but what is really fantastic about this is that it is a completely docile form of protest. There isn't even a need for active human protestors, because the message that this vibrant paint job sends is so clear. I don't see the Equality House having any real effect on the views of WBC members, but I hope it helps to create more distance between the WBC and the rest of the town.
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