Aaron Jackson's charity Planting Peace
last month launched an LGBT Pride flag into the stratosphere using a
high-altitude balloon.
“On August 17, Planting Peace sent
the first pride flag into space, and in doing so, declared space
LGBTQ friendly,” the charity said in a press release.
The group launched the balloon outside
of Milwaukee. A GoPro camera filmed as the flag ascended into the
stratosphere for three hours before making its way back to Earth.
The flag reached an altitude of 21.1
miles, Planting Peace said.
“Our hope was to create the largest
safe SPACE possible for our LGBTQ community,” the group said. “It
also offered us a chance to reinforce, in a peaceful, beautiful way,
our ongoing message to our LGBTQ family: You are loved, valued and
beautiful.”
Planting Peace is best known for
erecting Equality House, a rainbow-colored house located across from
the Westboro Baptist Church, a Topeka, Kansas-based group opposed to
LGBT rights.