For weeks, maybe even months, the Westboro Baptist Church has been planning on picketing college campuses that are LGBTQIA+ inclusive. The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee is one of them. As someone who is wholeheartedly in support of everyone having the same opportunity and rights to be happy and love whoever they want, I immediately decided I had to be at a counter-protest that was planned.
I made several signs the night before the counter-protest. The fact that this hateful group felt the need to picket several universities far away from their home in Kansas for simply believing that everyone should be able to openly love whoever they want to made me angry. At first, I debated between ignoring their hateful speech and attending the counter-protest to make sure they saw and heard me loud and clear. I wasn't going to put up with yet another hate group on campus.
The day of their arrival, I drove to campus. Everything seemed normal at first. However, when I got to Spaights Plaza, there was a huge crowd waiting for WBC with rainbow flags, signs, etc. People were handing out cheap mini kazoos, in order to drown out the hateful things WBC would likely be saying. Everyone was ready to face this hateful group.
Turns out, WBC heard about our presence and instead of going to Spaights, they were picketing on the corner of Kenwood and Maryland Ave. We all headed straight over and were met by police officers. As soon as we cornered them onto the grass, police, realizing how big the crowd was, sectioned off the WBC from the counter-protesters with yellow police tape. The infamous Shirley Phelps-Roper, along with a few other women and a teenage boy, held signs and sang. After what seemed like 30 minutes, they decided they had enough and left.
I was left reeling after WBC visited. In a weird way, I felt empowered and strong for responding to their hateful tactics in such a peaceful way, but at the same time, it drained me and left me feeling angry.
Sorry, Westboro Baptist Church, no one at UWM, or even the U.S., for that matter, is going to put up with your hateful speech.
