Believe it or not...
Westboro Baptist Church is coming to protest at my college.
Yep...the Phelps crowd is descending to protest a showing of "The Anatomy of Hate" on Monday night. I am looking into possible responses. Counter picket/protest, ignore them out of existence, what the college's official policy is, etc.
There have been some very effective counter protests against the Phelps....the Angel Action in Laramie when Mathew Shepherd was murdered and the "Not Today, Fred" protests. On the other hand, piling protest on protest can get them all the publicity they want - that is what they want! Ignoring them into oblivion is often the better answer, and there have been a few places where the Westboro protest has packed up or cancelled altogether because of lack of visibility or publicity. Another good counter protest strategy is to set up a donation pledge, where for every x amount of minutes or hours or whatever that Westboro is picketing, people can donate money or volunteer time or whatever to GLBT and other pertinent causes. That tends to get them to shut down early too. I have to say that in protesting this hate group, we need to remember WHO we are. We don't wish to become like them. We must behave better than them. We must behave with dignity, compassion and common sense, and not descend to their level. I mean that!
The Phelps Cult always threatens to come to Canada to protest at various events too, but they never do. They'd be barred at the border as a hate group anyway. I like the pledge donation technique -- it was popular up here in the 80s to counteract abortion clinic protestors. Some of them made the pro-choice movement a lot of money!
ReplyDeletea friend of mine sets up a booth and takes pledges - then when the protest is over gives the money to a local aids clinic.
ReplyDeleteHe's raised about 10K doing this.
peaceful counter protest at it's finest.
Whatever the counter protest, I intend to be in the thick of it. I love my school, and I've no patience for bad behavior.
ReplyDeleteI am with you in spririt, since I cannot physically be there, whatever response you choos.
ReplyDeleteThere is a "Love-In" planned as a peaceful counter-action planned for the day, but the permit only covers Converse students, faculty, and staff, though one of the organizes said she'd talked with another group from nearby who was hoping to get a permit for others as well. Don't know about that so far.
ReplyDeleteI'm looking forward to it, as much as one can something that is done in response to so much unhappy malevolence. We're going to show that it's a day/time/area of love for everybody, not one for hatred.