The straight and gay, the religious and the atheist, the young and the old all stood in the midst of a heavy fog outside of Clayton High School watching a red Honda minivan pull into the parking lot Feb. 6. Five members of the Westboro Baptist Church, a small, anti-gay religious organization from Topeka, Kansas, climbed out of the vehicle and held up their signs reading “God hates Fags.” The counter-protesters took pictures and held their own signs, but did not make any noise for several moments.
“I’m here to promote love,” Caroline Byrd, KHS sophomore, said. “I am for gay rights, and I am against what WBC stands for.”
Byrd was among several KHS students who missed first period with parental permission to counter-protest the WBC appearance at CHS.
“I was told to show up, wear white and that the only way to stop hate was with love,” Byrd said.
Demonstrations from WBC included the desecration of an American flag, the chanting of “God hates America” and the display of 3-foot tall signs. This was met by a counter-protest by hundreds of individuals that included the baring of a rainbow flag, reciting of peace messages and display of anti-hate signs.
“[The counter-protest] went extremely well,” David Hoffman, CHS Gay-Straight Alliance sponsor, said. “We wanted to make sure that it supported our students and our message of peace, which it did.”
Hoffman said it was the recent activity of the GSA that prompted WBC to protest. The CHS GSA had a series of speakers come, including the estranged son of Fred Phelps, WBC pastor, who left the church when he turned 18. Hoffman said this is what attracted the attention of WBC.
Hoffman said when students got word of the protest, they created the “CHS Response to the WBC Protest” Facebook event.
“You know how the internet is,” Hoffman said. “Word just got around so quickly. I’m overwhelmed by the support.”
In less than two weeks, the Facebook event had 701 people attending, along with 1,382 more invites. This number may also have been an underestimate of the attendance, as several citizens of Clayton and other areas of St. Louis came to show their support.
Although they were heavily outnumbered, WBC said similar protests will be happening in the near future.
“We are trying to hit all the high schools in the [St. Louis] area,” Shirley Phelps-Roper, daughter of Phelps and WBC protester, said. “So sure, there is a possibility of us protesting [at KHS]. There would not be any other different message or any other different spirit.”
According to KSDK News Channel 5, the WBC released a statement saying they would protest at Fort Zumwalt East High School that same day. However, the WBC did not attend that protest, stating the event was never scheduled and was made up by the media.
“The media does not set our schedule. We can’t be accountable for what the media says,” Phelps-Roper said. “We said we would picket at CHS, and that is what we did, but we will get to Fort Zumwalt and we will get to Kirkwood High when the Lord wills us.”
During the protest, there was a large police population that stood between protesters and counter-protesters.
Marci Pieper, CHS assistant principal, said WBC had sent a letter to the Clayton police department asking for protection and also said they were coming to CHS on which day at what time.
Pieper said CHS administrators did detailed research of the WBC, and discovered how the church affords to travel around the nation to protest.
Pieper said WBC protesters bring their own video cameras and still cameras and video tape the protest so that then they can, if they need to, sue municipalities.
“That is where they make a lot of their money,” Pieper said. “They sue if things would get violent and they didn’t think that they were being protected or if they felt like their legal rights had been infringed upon because a lot of the people in that community are lawyers, so they are very well versed in the law.”
Although the Clayton police department showed CHS the letter, the administration was told to handle the students rather than the public.
“It’s our job to keep the peace when we hear of something like this,” Tom Byrne, Clayton Chief of Police, said. “We are expecting this to be peaceful, but we have to be prepared for anything.”
