Patrick Armstrong | Editor in Chief
UPDATE (Wednesday, Feb. 3, 8:37 p.m.): Judy Shepard finished speaking and Westboro Baptist Church did not show up to picket.
UPDATE (Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2:30 p.m.): On Wednesday, Feb. 3, the UC Plaza has been registered by the Gay-Straight Alliance for music against hate from 6-7 p.m. and Eric Patton for free hugs from 7-8 p.m. WBC has not registered with University Facilities to protest.
According to the Westboro Baptist Church, WBC, Web site, www.godhatesfags.com/schedule.html, they will be picketing the APSU Unity Celebration Dinner speaker Judy Shepard on Wednesday, Feb. 3, from 6:15 to 7 p.m.
WBC was founded in 1955 by Pastor Fred Phelps in Topeka, Kan. and “engages in daily peaceful sidewalk demonstrations opposing the homosexual lifestyle of soul-damning, nation-destroying filth.”
Judy is the mother of Matthew Shepard who was attacked in Laramie, Wyo. on Oct. 8, 1998, for being gay. He passed away the next day. Judy speaks across the county about equal right and acceptance.
For more information, continue to visit www.theallstate.org.
UPDATE (Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2:30 p.m.): On Wednesday, Feb. 3, the UC Plaza has been registered by the Gay-Straight Alliance for music against hate from 6-7 p.m. and Eric Patton for free hugs from 7-8 p.m. WBC has not registered with University Facilities to protest.
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I will be there tomorrow, along with my friends, I don’t like Fred Phelps or his so called ‘church’.
Doesn’t university policy require you to reserve space in order to have any kind of demonstration or event? If they didn’t reserve the space then I guess its within campus police rights to accompany them off the premises?
Dear all,
Let us fight hate with love. If you see one of the members of this “church,” don’t engage them, just let them spew their hate. If you pay them no attention and walk right past, they don’t win. They only win when you pay them the attention they want. These people come on the day of Unity to cause disharmony. Don’t pay them any mind. They can’t really do anything because the space has been taken. If they show up when they say they will, according to university rules, if they don’t leave peacefully, they will be taken to jail. Let them do what they please, think what they think, and go about your business. Don’t instigate, don’t do anything. Just walk past them, don’t acknowledge them, and they will leave.