Nonprofit Buys House Across From Westboro Baptist Church, Paints It Rainbow Colored

Aaron Jackson, one of the founders of charity Planting Peace, decided to purchase a house across from the homophobic Westboro Baptist Church and then paint it the colors of the gay pride flag.

According to The Huffington Post, the organization purchased the Topeka, Kansas house for roughly $83,000. Planting Peace calls it “Equality House” and is the beginning of a campaign against the hate group.

“I didn’t know anything about the church or where they were located, but that story kept popping up. And one night I wondered, Where is this church? I got on Google Earth, and I was ‘walking down the road,’ and I did a 360 view. And I saw a 'For Sale’ sign sitting in the front yard of a house. Right away it hit me, Oh my gosh, I could buy a house in front of the WBC! And immediately I thought: And I’m going to paint that thing the color of the pride flag.”

Read the full article at The Huffington Post.

(Photos: Carol Hartsell / Huffington Post)

More: LGBT Rights in Kansas, United States

Equalitopia is on Google+

Add Equalitopia to your circle on Google+ to keep up to date with LGBTQ news!

Did you know? Google+ has the following gender options: “male,” “female” and “other." 

What do you think about Google+ so far?

Equalitopia on Google+

Tumblr adds LGBTQ section to new “Spotlight” directory

Equalitopia and a number of other LGBTQ blogs have received invites to be featured in the LGBTQ section of Tumblr’s new Spotlight directory, which replaces the old directory. Upon its launch, it did not include an “LGBTQ” category.

Aside from the new look and lack of user recommendations, the new directory is very similar to the old. A few categories were removed while a numer of new ones were added.

Currently featured in the LGBTQ directory are: I’m A PFLAG Mom, Art of Transliness, genderqueer, TRANS, KNOW Homo, Gender Magick, You Know You’re Trans* When…, Soffa Support, homohelp, Queer Secrets, the gang’s all QUEER, Fuck Yeah FTMs of Color, HOMOGROUND, LGBTQ GMHA, Persistence: All Ways Butch and Femme, and Equalitopia.

Users can recommend categories or blogs to be featured by emailing editors@tumblr.com.

What do you think of the new directory?

(Equalitopia’s directory image resource via SneakyTomato)

Reblog to win tickets to a special screening of 8: The Mormon Proposition

Equalitopia is giving away tickets for you and a guest to special screenings of 8: The Mormon Proposition in select cities.

8: The Mormon Proposition is a film by Reed Cowan narrated by Dustin Lance Black about the Mormon Church’s historic involvement in the promotion and passage of California's Proposition 8.

How To Win

If you can make it to one of the screenings listed, simply reblog this post for a chance to win! You can also tweet for another chance to win!

If your contact information (email, IM, Twitter or Facebook) is not found on your Tumblr blog, please simply include one of those pieces of information so we can contact you.

Screenings

Los Angeles (Tuesday, June 8th, 7:30pm)
American Cinematheque at the Egyptian, 6712 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood, CA 90028

San Diego (Wednesday, June 9th, 7:30pm)
Reading Cinemas Gaslamp 15, 701 5th Avenue, San Diego, CA 92101

Chicago (Sunday, June 13th, 7:00pm)
Gene Siskel Film Center, 164 N State Street, Chicago IL 60601

New York (Monday, June 14th, 7:30pm)
Chelsea 9 Cinemas, 260 W 23rd St., New York, NY 10011

Washington DC (Tu esday, June 15th, 7:30pm)
Landmark E-Street, 555 11th St NW, Washington, DC 20004

About the film

8: The Mormon Proposition exposes the Mormon Church’s historic involvement in the promotion and passage of California’s Proposition 8 and the religion’s secretive, decades-long campaign against gay rights. The film takes place in California and Utah as Mormons, following their prophet’s call to action, wage spiritual warfare with money and misinformation against gay citizens, doing everything they can to deny them of marriage and the rights that come with it. 8: The Mormon Proposition opens in theaters on June 18th, 2010, two years after the first gay marriages took place in California (June 17th, 2008). Read more at the official website.

Petition to include the LGBTQ category in Tumblr’s directory recommendations

Tumblr is a great place for LGBTQ people, but until recently, we’ve been denied a feature.

Many LGBTQ blogs want to be included in Tumblr’s LGBTQ directory. They email Tumblr asking to be included (since this is the only way), and they don’t get responses. Equalitopia waited months, and after many emails, it was finally added.

You may not want to be in the directory, but others do. All blogs should have a fair chance.

Tumblr’s lead developer says:

“I didn’t want immature people to nominate their non-LGBTQ friends/enemies into it. Didn’t want to cheapen/ruin the category.”

He’s implying that “gay” is an insult, and used as an attack on an enemy.

Tumblr Support says:

“Because of the social implications of this directory, we believe it would be tremendously irresponsible for us to risk a user intentionally or accidently outing another user.”

Reblog if you want LGBTQ blogs to be included in this feature.

Equalitopia will send this post to Tumblr staff once it gets enough reblogs.

Engaged volunteers needed!

Equalitopia is assisting Cristina Reitz-Krueger from the University of Virginia’s Psychology Department by finding engaged couples for a study about marriage and parenthood among engaged couples:

I am looking for volunteers for a study of attitudes towards marriage and parenthood among engaged couples.  The study consists of a 25-30 minute online survey. To qualify for the study, you must be 20-35 years old, live in the U.S., and plan to marry or have a commitment ceremony within the next 365 days. You and your romantic partner must not have children, and this must be the first marriage for both of you.

You can:

1. Help a doctoral candidate;
2. Increase the pool of scientific knowledge;
3. Support research on marriage and families; and
4. Spend some time thinking about your relationship!

I am working with Dr. Charlotte J. Patterson, a Professor of Psychology at the University of Virginia. This study has been approved by the University of Virginia Institutional Review Board #2009025800.

Interested?

If you and/or your romantic partner are interested in participating or want further information, please email me at survey.couples@gmail.com.  I will send you a link that you can use to access the study.

Cristina Reitz-Krueger
Doctoral Student
University of Virginia
(434) 243-8558
survey.couples@gmail.com

Equalitopia at Imagine RIT

Equalitopia was exhibited at Imagine RIT on Saturday, May 1st. Imagine RIT is an annual innovation festival held on Rochester Institute of Technology’s campus in Rochester, New York.

About 32,000 people attended the festival, and many got a sneak peek at Equalitopia Beta. Many suggestions were made about the application. People gave lots of positive feedback and many were excited to hear about Equalitopia.

It was great to see families so open about talking about LGBT rights with teens and children with them. However, there were quite a few adults that directed their children away from the exhibit, many claiming it was “adults only” and “not for kids.”

Many people shared their experiences in different countries.

One of the most exciting things about seeing people use Equalitopia Beta was to see them typing in names of countries to see how the country stands on LGBT rights. It was just a demo, so there was very little data, but it was exciting to see people interested in seeing the data.

Photos of Equalitopia’s exhibit from the festival:

Business cards given out during the festival:

(Main photo credit: Imagine RIT’s Flickr)

Equalitopia at Imagine RIT: Innovation and Creativity Festival

Equalitopia will be exhibited at Imagine RIT on Saturday, May 1st. Imagine RIT is an annual innovation festival held on Rochester Institute of Technology’s campus in Rochester, New York.

The application’s primary goals and features will be explained, with a live semi-interactive preview of Equalitopia Beta.

This will be the first time where specific details and screenshot clippings will be released about Equalitopia. Visitors will learn how Equalitopia will collect data and how it will be used to measure and analyze the LGBT movement.

Details

Date: Saturday, May 1, 2010 from 10am-5pm
Cost: Free
Location: Rochester, New York (Directions)

Equalitopia Exhibit Details »

Day of Silence on Twitter: Equalitopia’s Photo Project

Equalitopia is running this campaign to promote awareness on Twitter and to allow participants to creatively express their support.

The Day of Silence is the GLSEN’s annual day of action to create awareness of the bullying and harassment that many lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) students go through. Supporters take a vow of silence to protest and raise awareness about these issues.

Add Your Photo to the Project »

Equalitopia and this project are not affiliated with GLSEN.