By Kathryn Cross
New Editor
and Emily Dubinsky
Staff Writer
Approximately 300 South Bay residents held up signs and wore colorful attire at Redondo Union High School on Jan. 11 at 7 a.m. at the intersection of Diamond Street and Seahawk Way to counter the six Westboro Baptist Church anti-gay picketers.
Six WBC protestors held signs with phrases, such as “God sent the drought,” and other anti-Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Queer expressions.
“We look for large populated areas to spread the message that you’ve been lied to all the days of your life, and you can’t live however you want,” WBC member Isaac Hockenbarger said.
The community members heard about the WBC picketing due to a Dec. 19 WBC press release, which announced that WBC members would go on Jan. 11 from 7 a.m. to 7:30 a.m. to the intersection in front of RUHS.
“This is for you California!” the press release said. “It is so sad that you didn’t read and heed these words before you brought these curses down upon your children!”
Because of the press release’s message, RUHS Gay-Straight Alliance Club President Lola Chase encouraged the South Bay community to counter the picketing by creating a Facebook group with fellow RUHS senior Dana Moore. Chase said that she previously had experience with the Westboro Baptist church and knew she had to stand up for her beliefs with the help of her community.
“I’ve dealt with these people before in the past,” Chase said. “They really just come to preach hate and it’s really upsetting to see that people do this in the name of God. So, I was upset to hear that they were coming, but I knew that it would be a good opportunity for us to join together and be nonviolent and peaceful. I was angry and wanted to give them a piece of my mind and I realized that they wanted us to get angry and confrontational.”
According to Chase, the Facebook group is what publicized the protest and helped unite the community in their anti-WBC efforts.
After hearing about the counter-protest, Congresswoman Janice Hahn wrote a letter to publicize the event and express her “support [to the GSA] in all your efforts to stand up to injustice and discrimination.”
To make sure that the counter-protest did not get out of hand, Moore and Chase also met with the police department a school administration in order to talk about liability and safety issues throughout the protest.
“I did a lot of research on the church, and I found that they sue schools and cities when people get confrontational with them during the protests,” Chase said.
Redondo Beach Police Dpt. Lt. Joe Hoffman said that there was a strong police presence at the event to further ensure safety.
“The protest went well and no arrests were made which ended the day on a good note,” Hoffman said.
WBC has previously protested at the Jan. 10 Golden Globe Awards in Beverly Hills because they believe that ‘God hates Hollywood.’ WBC has also picketed Anaheim High School, El Segundo High School and Beverly Hills High School.
“I do not think Westboro was a real threat to Redondo,” RUHS teacher Lincoln Marx said. “But, I think it made a difference that the kids could come out and have their voices heard, which is an important lesson.”
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