We all know about the protest efforts of the Westboro Baptist Church, but in recent years, some amazing counter-protests have sprung up. None more incredible than the Equality House an entire house painted as one giant rainbow, directly across from Westboro itself in Topeka, Kansas.
The idea was the brainchild of Planting Peace, an international relief aid charity, whose founder was inspired by a child, who passed by the Westboro protestors during graduation at Washburn University, with a sign that read “God hates no one.”
“The founder of Planting Peace saw the picture and went on Google street view to find out where they lived,” Davis Hammet, director of operations for Planting Peace said. He saw a “for sale” sign across the street and thought wow what if we got a house right next to them and painted it rainbow? “That was the initial idea.”
After some discussion, it was decided the house itself could be a symbol, especially with the Supreme Court taking up the DOMA and Prop 8 cases.
“We actually launched one week before those cases were heard, so we knew the house itself would be a symbol of things getting better.” Hammet said.
From there, once the property was bought and painted by sites like https://www.europaintinginc.com/house-painting/, Equality House took off online.
“The night before launch we had the Huffington Post and Gawker here because they knew about the story,” Davis said. “We already had a heads up, we already knew we were going to make some national news. It went a lot bigger than we could ever imagine. I think what was a shock to us was how the local community has loved it. The community has embraced us. We’ve also had an amazing international response. It kind of went everywhere.”
As for response from their neighbors next door, Davis has said they’ve been civil about the whole thing.
“On the painting day, Shirley Phelps-Roper was walking around taking pictures. I was in the yard and asked her how she liked the colors and she said she loved them, I started blowing her kisses and she walked back in the church,” he said. They said we’re really good neighbors but they’re better neighbors because they preach the truth. They’re really civil people in person, except for when the camera gets on them, they start screaming. We”ve only got response online, because of rules they instated themselves, prevent them picketing us. They didn’t want people picketing them, so they made a special rule where when church is in session, you can’t picket on public lands within 50 feet, including the church grounds. They changed the hours from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. at night, seven days a week. Virtually no one can picket them, but it also prevents them from picketing others around the church.
Equality House is thriving as a symbol and is planning with donations raised to implement a K-12 anti-bullying program that will “end the Silent epidemic.” The project is changing hearts and minds, inspiring a 60-year-old man to come out to his parents and giving a former Westboro member the courage to join Planting Peace in their anti-bullying efforts.
“Libby Phelps, who left the church four years ago, she stopped by to see the house,” Davis said. “We gave her a paint brush, she took some pictures. We talked about her potentially working with us. She’s going to help us do the anti-bullying programs. She’s a great symbol of overcoming bigotry and becoming an agent for good.”
Written by MATT JAMIESON
