The other day, I went to a counter-rally which was protesting a Westboro Baptist Church protest. For those who are not familiar with WBC, they are a family led by Fred Phelps who regularly advocate absolutely horrifying ideas about God. According to Wikipedia , they usually protest about 6 times a day at locations around the country. Essentially, anything bad that happens anywhere is considered to be God’s judgment for “letting” gays live openly and act as citizens—they protest at soldiers’ funerals (with signs like “Thank God for IEDs” and “Thank God for 9/11”) and the Holocaust Museum (“Rabbis rape kids”), for example. 
Horrifically, they even decided to protest at the funeral of the 9 year-old girl who was killed at the Tucson, Arizona shooting of Sen. Giffords. Thankfully, Arizona quickly passed restrictions on protests at funerals (which is currently being challenged in court), and the WBC was persuaded by some DJs not to protest in exchange for getting their message out on the radio.
Many people are understandably upset with the WBC and its message of hate, and at many of its protests, angry passerbys and numerous counter-protesters have confronted the WBC protestors. But is it a good idea?
Here’s what the WBC spokesperson Sherly Phelps-Roger said to TBD.com about counter-protests:
“Tee hee! We LOVE THEM! When you are delivering a message to people, it makes it easier to deliver the message when people see the signs. So counter protesters have an opportunity to ask questions, and engage in discussion.”
Was my going to the protest appropriate? Or did it just help the WBC get their message out there? Here’s how I saw it:
1. The WBC was going to be there, and was going to get the media attention regardless of what we did in response.
Due to their inflammatory rhetoric, the WBC gets noticed wherever they go, so a counter-protest is unlikely to bring the spotlight to them anymore than they already would anyway. What’s a more positive headline, though? “Westboro Baptist Church protests at campus” or “Fighting hate with blackout poetry”?
2. An organized counter-rally is better than unorganized anger.
One of the most common responses to the WBC is yelling. I understand yelling: these are despicable people, doing despicable things. However, what benefit does yelling actually have, besides making yourself feel better? Phelps-Roger also told TBD.com that:
“We have gone into many pl
aces and they send their children out like attack dogs. At this hour, the nation is clear that when we go out, the mob comes out.”
In other words, they like the upset, angry, and untrained counter-protestors who simply spew vitriol at the WBC, making the WBC look almost reasonable in contrast. With an organized, calm counter-protest, a lot of the anger and upset can be channeled into a far more positive outlet, which certainly will not change the WBC protestors’ minds but is still a worthwhile demonstration of support for everything WBC vilifies.
Am I right, though? Did our counter-rally actually doing anything worthwhile, or did we just play right into the hands of the WBC? And here’s the biggest question: did we simply legitimize the WBC?
That is what I am most afraid of: that somehow, by my actions, I actually aided and abetted the WBC’s hate campaign. However, that brings me to the most important reason I went to the counter-rally:
3. It is never ok to stay quiet when hate is being perpetuated.
Certainly, it does not seem that the WBC will persuade many people with their sheer hate, but they are simply one small part of a much larger problem. Standing up to them is easy: they generally are repulsive to even those who might agree with their basic anti-gay rhetoric.
Standing up to the more subtle kinds of hate is hard: a gay slur used in casual conversation (“dude, you’re such a…”—if you’re under 25, you filled in the blank automatically, I’m sure), a derogative comment about how something is “so gay,” and so forth.
That is the real challenge for a decent person: to force yourself not to just let those little things slide.
-The Girlfriend
About a little under a year ago the WBC were planning on protesting a production of ‘The Laramie Project’, a play that pays tribute to Matthew Shepard who was murdered years back for being gay, and was being performed at Temple University. I remember having a friend forward me an email that was sent out by the leader of the school’s LGBTQ organization asking for any other students in the Philadelphia area to come out and support the counter-protest also planned for the same time.
So a bunch of us went over, and the first thing I noticed when we arrived was just how many people were already waiting, holding up all manner of creative and non-sequitur signs or dressed up in any eccentric costume they could find. While we lined up along the streets the WBC had announced they’d protest at, the thing that struck me the most was that this did not seem like most other protests I’ve been to/heard of: there was an undercurrent of anger, yes, but mostly everyone was just -smiling- at one another. Among the purposefully nonsensical signs there were many others that were proclaiming love and for everyone to just let go of hate. I still have my sign from then, actually: “Love comes in all colors” (with rainbow and all), and I just couldn’t count the number of elated faces who grinned and shouted back similar words of unconditional acceptance.
In the end, the WBC ended up just never showing up. The coolest thing ever was when the campus police drove up to tell us that they weren’t coming, and while we technically then should be dispersing, that they were not going to force us to do so. From there it turned into a beautiful party in the streets, with even a college cop or two joining in after awhile. I didn’t get to stay for as long as I would have liked, but from what I heard there was a discussion held after the play where counter-protesters raised about $450 to donate to the Attic, a LGBTQ non-profit. More than 700 of us showed up, and coming from someone who goes to a tiiiiiny Seven Sisters College, it was simply incredible to see. So many people came from all over the city to show support for everyone; and I say ‘everyone’ since I find the WBC to be senselessly spouting hate for all humanity, not just us LGBTQ folk.
So I guess the point of my unnecessarily-long comment is that our counter-protest may have been seen as playing into the WBC’s hands, but ultimately I saw more love than anger being expressed that day. Nobody got into any trouble, everyone was responsible with their behavior, and more than anything it was just a great celebration of everything we stood up for. If anything, it’s a success story to look back upon. Or at least, that’s how I think of it.