The new gay rights center in Topeka, Kansas, got a paint job and a sign on Tuesday to let everyone know what they're about. The house is directly across the street from Fred Phelps' infamous Westboro Baptist Church.
The center is the work of a roving do-gooder named Aaron Jackson, a 31-year-old community-college dropout whose other projects have included opening orphanages in India and Haiti and buying a thousand acres of endangered rain forest in Peru. This year, his charity, Planting Peace, also intends to de-worm every child in Guatemala.
Jackson was drawn to Topeka after reading about Josef Miles, the local boy who last year, at the age of nine, photobombed one of the Westboro protests with a handmade sign that read "God Hates No One." Jackson had been looking for a way to support equality, anti-bullying programs, and some sort of pro-LGBT initiative, he said.
"I've been accused in the past of being all over the place, and they're probably right on some level," Jackson told me last night by phone. "Right now we are standing up to bigotry and promoting equality."
The house was purchased six months ago, but the rainbow paint job is the first indication to the Westboro congregation, with several members living in the neighborhood, of what the new neighbors are up to. Link
Update: The facility is called Equality House. Link