With signs and slogans such as “God hates fags,” “America is doomed” and “Pray for more dead soldiers,” members of the Westboro Baptist Church have caught national attention and acrimony for a decade.
When I found out they were coming to my school, I knew I had to be there.
While most of us at GW dismiss the Westboro Baptist Church as insane, not everyone is able to let the Church’s hateful words roll off their backs.
In high school, I was fortunate enough to surround myself with open-minded friends and escape the negativity associated with coming out. But I know plenty of people who were not as lucky, and their coming-out processes were only made more difficult by small churches in my rural western North Carolina town that sympathized with Westboro or thought that they held a correct interpretation of the Bible.
The aggressive and offensive ideologies trumpeted by the fringe group have hurt people in the past, and they could hurt people here.
The struggle to reconcile sexuality and religion does not end with the onset of adulthood. Many people struggle with it for years into their adult lives. And to anyone still struggling to come to terms with his or her sexuality, these protests will spark sour emotions.
That’s why we have a responsibility to speak out.
If even one person gives credence to what the group is saying and begins to self-doubt as a result of their picketing, the rest of us right-minded people have failed. If the church makes even one person rethink the rightness of his or her gender or sexuality, we have failed as protectors of diversity and acceptance at GW.
Last time the Westboro Baptist Church came to campus in 2010, a group of GW seniors launched a campaign to combat the group. The students sold “I’m Gay for a Day” t-shirts to unify the campus and raise money for the It Gets Better project, which helps LGBT teens struggling to come out.
We need to unify for this cause again.
As students, we have a responsibility to be there and say that these people are wrong. We have to send the message to LGBT youth that we – as peers, friends and classmates – reject this.
The writer is a sophomore majoring in international affairs.
