Vol. 73/No. 25      June 29, 2009

The Westboro Baptist Church, located in Topeka, Kansas, is led by Fred Phelps. It is known for picketing funerals of GIs who have died in Iraq or Afghanistan, saying that these deaths are a result of the acceptance of homosexuality in the United States. In their picket lines here Phelps’s followers carried signs saying, “God hates fags” and “God hates Obama.”

The students chanted back, “Racist, sexist, antigay, Christian fascists go away!”

Hanna King, a 15-year-old sophomore at the school, organized the protest at Garfield. Interviewed by the Seattle Times, she said, “Speech that isn’t rebutted gets to stand on its own.” The paper noted she proposed the rally to give “support to anyone, from gays to Jews to African Americans, who might be angry or hurt by the signs.”

At the rally King told the Militant that she was pleased to see so many students and others from the community present. “The turnout reflected the diversity of our student body and we did this with no violence or confrontation.” Garfield students and some staff members marshaled the demonstration as well.

Roinerah Clewis, an African American student at Garfield, said, “If you never take a stand for what you believe in, you don’t get what you want.”

Willie Hodge, a member of the First AME Church, said that this demonstration was important to “stomp out hate.”

On the previous day, some 150 mostly youthful demonstrators counterpicketed the Westboro Church rightists at the Mount Zion Baptist Church in Seattle. They then marched to St. James Catholic Cathedral, where the rightists had moved their picket.

Eduardo Brambila, 19, organized this protest. “We need to stand up,” he told the Militant. “We can’t ignore hatred and bigotry. It is important to unite different communities to fight this. I am glad to see people of different generations out here to protest.”  
 
 
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