We’ve all seen it- those hate-spewing “preachers” that spend their days bothering college students by screeching about “the gays” on public campuses. Aside from the sinful graphic design on their signs, they do a lot of damage by voicing their rather loud opinions. Their signs, shirts, and pamphlets are riddled with homophobic and racial slurs, and they’re quick to verbalize those insults directly to their victims.

Of course, these preachers tend to gather a crowd. Us college kids are known for having opinions and being unafraid to stand up for ourselves, so it’s no wonder that we often make quite a response to such extreme displays of hatred. But a lot of times, when crowds gather and people start to argue back, the counter-protesters are often told “just ignore him and he’ll go away!” or “You’re giving him exactly what he wants!” or “you’re not going to change his mind!”

While the counter-protesters may be playing into the preacher’s plan and giving the response he wanted, the goal of fighting back isn’t to change the mind of the preacher. Because if that were the goal, the better method would be to calmly sit down and ask them to hear out your experiences.

The goal of the counter-protesting is to make sure that the preachers’ victims- the LGBTQ students, the students of color, the female students, all of their targets- are not affected by the hate being spewed.

If a gay student was walking to class and heard “All f**s will burn in hell, kill yourself!” on their way, and saw no one responding, that student would subconsciously begin to believe that all of those people walking by and not responding agree with the preacher. Those subconscious thoughts could lead them to self-hatred, shame, and even suicidal tendencies. Neutrality only benefits the oppressor, not the victim.

The point of fighting back, and making a joke of these preachers is to show to all of their victims walking by that no one is taking this guy seriously, and you shouldn’t either.