Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Shouting Match: Westboro comes to GW


 ORIGINALLY POSTED 7 OCTOBER 2013


The Westboro Bastard...er, Baptist Church is coming to GW's Mt. Vernon campus.


And everyone is up in arms about this, boy. People are already talking about counter protests. To that I say "No Thanks."

Now in no way do I condone this church. Their views towards Gender and Sexual Minorities are disgusting.

But counter protesting these ignoramuses is not going to accomplish anything. People are going to do this because it feels good, not because it accomplishes something. After this protest happens, GW students are going to be all over social media, highlighting in great detail how righteous they are and how vile the Westboro Baptist Church is.

However, there are better ways to advocate for GSM equality than to shout at a group of delusional inbred morons.

When we learn about the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s, we don't learn about the college students who spent an hour shouting at a couple Klansmen for being racists. And the students who show up and chew out the Westboro Baptist Church won't be in the history books we use to teach our children about this civil rights movement.

I'm not saying we should be quiet on the issue of GSM equality. By all means, we should continue to campaign for equal rights and recognition for our homosexual, bisexual, and transgender brothers and sisters. I am proud to be a native of Massachusetts, where the legalization of same sex marriage seems like ancient history.

But I fear this counter-protest is going to happen for some of the wrong reasons. Namely, vanity and self-recognition.

"But Kyle, you have a picture of yourself posted to facebook where you're holding a sign supporting marriage equality from the rally at the Supreme Court in late March!"

Yes, I do. But I was there to support a concrete goal: the judicial repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act and California's Proposition 8.  The Westboro Baptist Church doesn't accomplish anything with their protests except angering people. They don't campaign for concrete goals. (And even if they did, there is no way in hell they'd succeed in implementing their disgusting views) And since they don't campaign for concrete goals, their protests mean nothing.


Ignore these people. They crave attention, don't give it to them.

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