Westbro Baptist Church is coming to my town to protest against gay people?

[Johnny]

So Yale university is one of the biggest universities in the United States and is only about half hour away from where I live. They are promoting an event in favor of the gay rights movement and a number of gay rights activists and gay people will be there to show their support for gay rights.

So now the Westbro Baptist Church has said they are coming to protest against us gays. They even posted a comment on their twitter page with a video explaining why they hate gay people and why God hates us and we are going to hell.

So like question is what would you do if the Westbro Baptist Church came to your town to protest soldiers or gay people? I am still going so I can show my support for the gay rights movement but I expect to see a ton of Westbro and other homophobic haters there. Also what can I expect at this kind of event? This is my first time going to any sort of gay rights movement.

[Jessie]

Counter protest and make fun of them. See "Westboro Church vs Comic Con" for epic humiliation done in a fun way. There have also been incidents where entire towns unite to inconvenience them as much as possible.
http://www.comicsalliance.com/2010/07/22...st-church/
http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/small-mis...oro-baptis
http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/westboro-...als-refuse
http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/the-3o-be...-protest-s

[William]

They packed up and left Portland, Maine, after only about 15 minutes the time they came here. They got a nasty reception, turned tail and disappeard into the sewers of USA downhill from New England.

[Lewis]

This is the type of moments I thank god that he did not create these sort of people in the United Kingdom lol.

I know that if they came to my town (city) they would receive violence from the public (not condoning this but it will happen) and police arresting them for hate crimes (@with the god hates f@gs" nonsense ).

I do not know what you are going to expect though.

[Kert]

Call the police and have them arrested for "disturbing the peace"

[esmerelda]

The most effective counterattack happened with a huge wall of human beings, at some university where everyone had a univ. t-shirt and blocked them from the funeral.

There's also humor - LOTS of great counter-counter-protest signs. Zombies were very popular at Halloween -- http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/zom...13653.html

maybe you could do a Christmas/Solstice/Hannukah theme protest?

Comicon had some of the best graphics, no surprise:

http://images.search.yahoo.com/search/im...+comic+con


My favorite counter strategy took place in a small town in the south.. it was illegal, of course; during the night before, some trucker parked behind the Westboro vehicles n the motel parking lot... and left. He didn't come back until after the funeral of a local soldier. Oddly, no tow trucks were availble to move the offending vehicle, and police were very slow in responding. This wouldn't work in a big city, but it made me smile.

Don't do anything illegal. The whole Westboro scam is about stepping on their toes so they can sue. but it is not illegal to laugh at the jerks.

[❄M❄]

In my country an anti gay movement wouldn't even make it into the public eye. They would be caught and arrested and imprisoned. That's where I think the US needs to get a grip and stop letting these pathetic people do what they want. What they're doing is a hate crime. Freedoms come with responsibilities one is not to abuse the freedom.

[G]

approach them with open arms as god will go before ye
bless them and welcome them and be peaceful.

[abs_bl]

Get a boy and a person with a camera. Kiss the boy with the westbro people raging in the background, get a picture of that and then post it online. It will go viral and you've helped the gay cause

[NiRO TEMP]

this is a way to beat them... or you could steal a car and run them over