Planting Peace, the non-profit organization behind The Equality House, that sits across the street from Westboro Baptist Church, today placed a giant billboard (above) in Cleveland, Ohio, where the RNC will take place next week. The billboard shows an illustration of Donald Trump about to kiss Ted Cruz with a caption that reads “Love trumps Hate. End homophobia.”
Planting Peace stated on their Web site, “What Donald, Ted and the republican platform either fail to realize, or realize and just don’t seem to care about, is that their words and actions toward our LGBT family — especially LGBT children–have meaning and impact. LGBT children hear these messages telling them they are nothing but second class citizens and are left feeling somehow broken or ‘less than.’
“We challenge the GOP to think about how many times their children could hear messages like these and not be impacted or question their value and worth? These messages sink our young people into a spiral of depression and directly correlate to queer youth attempting or actually committing suicide. The blood of these children is on the hands of the anti-LGBT platform of the Republican Party. This is not theory. This is not a dramatization. These are facts. For example, when HB2 passed, the Trans lifeline, a suicide prevention hotline for the transgender community, saw their suicide hotline calls increase 100 percent for transgender children.
“Planting Peace calls for the immediate change in the Republican Party platform with regard to our LGBT family and LGBT rights. Never again shall a negative, hateful message be uttered in the name of “religious freedom.” We are calling for action that brings full fundamental rights to the LGBT community, and a narrative that empowers LGBT people to live and love freely.”
