Westboro Baptist Church: D.C. Students Shine During Counter-Protest Of Anti-Gay Group
The Westboro Baptist Church long ago established itself as one of the most despised, and mocked, organizations to ever exist in the United States.
Shamelessly picketing at the services of dead U.S. soldiers is one of the favorite pastimes of Westboro Baptist Church members, the core of their hateful protests stemming from an anti-gay agenda spewed in the name of their interpretation of the Bible.
When they first burst onto the scene, Westboro Baptist Church members were quite successful with their rallies, hiding behind the 1st Amendment and law enforcement. Their Matriarchal figure, Shirley Phelps-Roper, also enjoyed a lot of media attention, giving her additional opportunities to further the Westboro Baptist agenda via blood boiling interviews.
The obvious reactions to Westboro Baptist Church protests usually involved something along the lines of wanting to beat the church members senseless while hurling derogatory names. Unfortunately, Westboro Baptist Church members always seemed to very much enjoy these types of reactions. Well, at least when they were securely behind protective lines of police.
More recently, however, Westboro Baptist protests have been met by evermore successful counter protests. These counter-protests often hurl peace and love, perhaps mixed with some mockery and humor, rather than more hate, back at the Westboro Baptists.
Such was the case when the Westboro Baptist Church showed up at Northwest Washington High School in Washington D.C. Monday morning, to display their displeasure with Principal Pete Cahall, who announced to his students last week during his school’s Pride Day event, that he was gay.
Led by student organizers, hundreds of Wilson High School students and others from the community, faced off with the anti-gay Westboro Baptist Church members, gathering in front of the school to mount their own peaceful counterprotest, reports the Washington Post.
Chants of “fight the bigotry, fight the hate,” accompanied billowing rainbow flags and homemade signs that included messages such as “Love is Love” and “I Have Two Moms And Life Is Good.”
Good job, guys. #tigers4love pic.twitter.com/5N87PBIpX2
— DC Public Schools (@dcpublicschools) June 9, 2014
Wilson Student Body President, Jennifer Li, worked with the school’s Gay Straight Alliance to pull together the counter-protest against Westboro Baptist:
“I’ve never seen this many people come together, even at a sporting event,” said Li. “We’re promoting a school of love and acceptance.”
“I’m hoping that we as the Wilson community send a strong and loud message to the nation that we’re about peace, love and acceptance of all people, including people from Westboro,” said Principal Cahall.
Meanwhile, around the corner from the colorful student counter-protest, skulked the Westboro Baptist Church members – a “handful”, according to NBC Washington – holding their typical anti-gay signs.
Westboro Baptist member, Charles Hockenbarger, expressed his belief that schools shouldn’t be used as a “bully pulpit” where homosexuality is taught to be acceptable, and that people like Cahall who choose to come out only strengthen Westboro Baptist’s resolve.
“What do his sexual proclivities have to do with educating children?” Hockenbarger said. “He could have just as easily kept that to himself.”
Police were present to minimize interaction between the groups, but in all it seemed the students clearly won the day:
“We kind of took it together to be proud of who we are,” said student Aiden Parisi, “and be happy that what we’re doing is making an impact, that obviously this group has to come protest us.”
Along with the Wilson students, others from surrounding public and private schools also came out. Parents, alumni, neighbors and members of local churches joined in too, a collective, and peaceful, thumbing of the nose at Westboro Baptist Church.
Images via Twitter
