Westboro Visit Unites East Student Body
Excitement rising in her chest, Kelsi Arrieta moved through the trees along the esplanade. Behind her, close to 300 Angels made up a crowd that was speckled with purple clothing and brightly colored signs. In front of her stood six picketers sporting bloodstained American flags and signs proclaiming such messages as “God Hates Fags.” She would later tell a Spotlight reporter that she was “honored to say I’m an Angel right now.” As a President of Angels Against Abuse, a club that works to reduce teen dating violence and often interacts with the homosexual community, Arrieta had reason to be proud: “it was amazing to think that the work we do in Angels Against Abuse could have affected this or just the work of the community could have made people so open to others.” Signs proclaiming “God Loves All” and “If God Hates Gays, Why did he Make us so Cute?” surrounded those marked with “God Is Your Enemy” and “U H8 Jesus” as the crowd of East Angels encircled the six Westboro Baptist Church Picketers. Arrieta remember the moment as “powerful, very powerful. There aren’t too many words to describe it. I just remember looking back and seeing all these students and getting goose bumps… it was so awesome to see so many people in support of one thing.”
The men and women that had provoked this response by the East High student body represented Westboro Baptist Church, a small church of 71 people located in Topeka, Kansas. The church is known for picketing gay-pride events and funerals, and pickets an estimated six locations every day. Their message is mainly anti-homosexual (they attribute all suffering and world problems to homosexuality) but they bring other messages too. They frequently criticize other religions as devil and idol worship, as emphasized by their destinations after East High School: two Jewish General Assembly meetings. They frequently threaten to picket locations and then fail to show up if no counter-demonstration is organized.
The atmosphere in the crowd on the corner of 17th more resembled that of a pep rally or sports game than that of a group of angry counter-protesters. Traditional East call and response chants sounded from the middle of the moon-shaped throng. Police officers and school security staff made sure that the counter-demonstrators kept a gap of a few feet between themselves and their awkwardly smiling opposition. Abe Mamet, a Junior on Student Council who helped organize a Facebook event in which 528 people pledged to attend the counter-demonstration, stated “I couldn’t be happier about what happened today.” He described student council and the administration’s stance as one of passivity: “To discourage any chance of violent confrontation, student council asked the students not to… well I wouldn’t say not to protest, but not to make the protests a big deal.”
Students had roughly three days to organize the counter-protests after word got out that Westboro had posted their plans to picket what they called the “fag-infested, pervert-run East High School” on their website, www.godhatesfags.com. At least three Facebook events immediately sprang up, attracting discussion and hundreds of promises to attend. Parents and other adults from across the state joined students in their response. Mel Duggan, longtime sponsor of HHALO (Homosexual Heterosexual Alliance for Leadership and Outreach) said of the event “It seemed like all the gay kids really felt that East had come together and supported and embraced them in the face of bigotry. At a time when gay students are being bullied and killing themselves across the country, it’s a fabulous thing that the gay community at East was embraced and celebrated.”
Gay East Alumni Jovan Bridges was among those attending the protests. “I’ve always wanted to go to one of their protests, it’s just I haven’t had the chance,” he said of the Westboro picketers. “Now that it’s at East it’s right there, it’s hitting home.” When asked about the student response he was almost drowned out by another chorus of cheers and chants: “I’m really surprised this many people came out and I’m so happy that this many people are willing to fight.”
East Sophomore Bruno ()()() stated his feelings near the end of the protest, when student numbers were piquing. “It’s damn inspiring,” he breathed, holding his sign a little higher as he stretched for a full view of the crowd. “We’ve certainly outnumbered them, so I guess we’ve changed this into a demonstration as opposed to a hate speech.”
