Topeka is the capital city of the U.S. state of Kansas and the seat of Shawnee County. It is along the Kansas River in the central part of Shawnee County, in northeast Kansas, in the Central United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 126,587. The Topeka metropolitan statistical area, which includes Shawnee, Jackson, Jefferson, Osage, and Wabaunsee Counties, had a population of 233,870 in the 2010 census.
A rainbow flag is a multicolored flag consisting of the colors of the rainbow. The designs differ, but many of the colors are based on the seven spectral colors of the visible light spectrum.
Fred Waldron Phelps Sr. was an American minister and disbarred lawyer who served as the pastor of the Westboro Baptist Church, worked as a civil rights attorney, and ran for statewide election in Kansas. A divisive and controversial figure, he gained national attention for his homophobic views and protests near the funerals of gay people, AIDS victims, military veterans, and disaster victims who he believed were killed as a result of God punishing the U.S. for having "bankrupt values" and tolerating homosexuality.
The Westboro Baptist Church (WBC) is an American, unaffiliated Primitive Baptist church in Topeka, Kansas, that was founded in 1955 by pastor Fred Phelps. It is widely considered a hate group, and is known for its public protests against homosexual people and for its usage of the phrases "God hates fags" and "Thank God for dead soldiers". It also engages in hate speech against atheists, Jews, Muslims, transgender people, and even other Christian denominations. WBC's theology and practices are widely condemned by other Christian churches, including the Baptist World Alliance and the Southern Baptist Convention, and by politicians and public figures, including former U.S. president Barack Obama.
A spite house is a building constructed or substantially modified to irritate neighbors or any party with land stakes. Because long-term occupation is not the primary purpose of these houses, they frequently sport strange and impractical structures.
Shirley Lynn Phelps-Roper is an American lawyer and political activist. She was the lead spokesperson of the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas, an organization that protests against homosexuality conducted under the slogan "God Hates Fags" until a power struggle within the organization reduced her status.
The rainbow flag or pride flag is a symbol of LGBT pride and LGBT social movements. The colors reflect the diversity of the LGBT community and the spectrum of human sexuality and gender. Using a rainbow flag as a symbol of LGBT pride began in San Francisco, California, but eventually became common at LGBT rights events worldwide.
Phelps-A-Thon.com is a Boston-based, pro-LGBT website working to counteract the message spread by the Westboro Baptist Church, (WBC) and their leader, Fred Phelps. It works by channelling passions against WBC into donations for groups targeted by the WBC's pickets.
Nathan Phelps is an American-born Canadian author, LGBT rights activist, and public speaker on the topics of religion and child abuse. He is the sixth-born of the 13 children of Fred Phelps, from whom he – along with three of his siblings – had been estranged since his 18th birthday in 1976 until his father's death in 2014. Phelps ran away from his family home when he turned 18, and permanently left the Westboro Baptist Church four years later in 1980. He has since publicly censured the group.
Lauren Drain is a former member of the Westboro Baptist Church who wrote the 2013 book Banished, which chronicles her experiences and eventual banishment from the church.
Planting Peace is a nonprofit humanitarian organization founded for the purpose of "spreading peace in a hurting world". The organization specializes in diverse global causes, including orphanages in Haiti and India, international deworming efforts, rainforest preservation, and anti-bullying programs. In 2007 Planting Peace founder Aaron Jackson was honored as a CNN Hero for his relief efforts deworming millions of children in Haiti. In March 2013 Planting Peace gained international attention when they created the Equality House, a rainbow-colored home located directly across the street from Westboro Baptist Church, an anti-LGBT group. In 2016, members of Planting Peace walked across Antarctica with a Pride flag in "a symbolic effort to declare full human rights for all lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people living in or visiting Antarctica."
Within Christianity, there are a variety of views on the issues of gender identity and transgender people. Christian denominations vary in their official position: some explicitly support gender transition, some oppose it, and others are divided or have not taken an official stance. Within any given denomination, individual members may or may not endorse the official views of their church on the topic.
Raffi Freedman-Gurspan is an Honduran American transgender rights activist and the first openly transgender person to work as a White House staffer. She was also the first openly transgender legislative staffer to work in the Massachusetts House of Representatives. She served as director of external relations at the National Center for Transgender Equality, based in Washington, DC. She is a longtime advocate and public policy specialist on matters concerning human rights, gender, and LGBT people.
Megan Phelps-Roper is an American political activist who is formerly a member of, and spokesperson for, the Westboro Baptist Church, a Hyper-Calvinist Christian sect, widely regarded as a hate group. Her mother is Shirley Phelps-Roper, and her grandfather is the church's founder, Fred Phelps. She grew up in Topeka, Kansas, in a compound with other members of the church. As a child, she was taught the Westboro Baptist Church doctrine and participated in the church's pickets against homosexuality, the American response to the September 11 terrorist attacks, and the funerals of soldiers who died in the War in Afghanistan and the War in Iraq. In 2009, she became active on Twitter to preach the church's doctrine. Phelps-Roper began to doubt her beliefs when Twitter users pointed out contradictions in the Westboro Baptist Church's doctrine, and when elders changed the church's decision-making process.
Aaron Jackson is an American human rights and environmental activist. Jackson was raised in Destin, Florida and attended Valencia College until 2002. After backpacking around the world, he interned at The Homeless Voice, an advocacy group in Davie, Florida, and became director of the COSAC Homeless Shelter. The first orphanages he opened in Haiti were established using money he made as a golf caddy while living in a homeless shelter in order to fund the orphanages. Jackson was named a CNN Hero in 2007 after leading a campaign to deworm children in Haiti.
The Montrose Center is an LGBTQ community center located in Houston, Texas, in the United States. The organization provides an array of programs and services for the LGBTQ community, including mental and behavioral health, anti-violence services, support groups, specialized services for youth, seniors, and those living with HIV, community meeting space, and it now operates the nation's largest LGBTQ-affirming, affordable, senior living center in the nation, the Law Harrington Senior Living Center. It is a member of the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs. It is in Neartown (Montrose).
Westboro Baptist Church carries out daily picketing in Topeka, Kansas and travels nationally to picket the funerals of gay victims of murder or gay-bashing, as well as those of people who have died from complications related to AIDS. It also pickets other events related or peripherally related to homosexuality. It is the protesting of military funerals that led to the organization receiving much attention for its small size. Protests done by Westboro Baptist Church are characterized by defacement of the American flag, hate speech said by members to onlookers, and members holding signs with predominantly homophobic and anti-American statements.
