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Handing Hate the Microphone

Handing Hate the Microphone

Last updated on: April 21, 2016 at 9:43 am by Erin Wathen

Handing Hate the Microphone 2016-04-21T09:43:16-07:00 Erin Wathen

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Kansas legislators recently introduced a measure that would require transgender students (at public schools and universities) to use the restrooms corresponding to their gender-at-birth. Other states have similar policies but, of course, Kansas always has to go one-up on these things. So in our state, students who “catch” a classmate using the wrong facility would receive a $2500 settlement. Because, you know, the trauma of it all.

CC0 via pixabay

I know, ick.

A group of student LGBT advocates from one of our local high schools recently responded by organizing a protest at the State Capitol.

So predictably… Westboro Baptist showed up at said local high school. And because they are such sticklers for etiquette, they gave advance notice of their appearance. Word was that they would stage a protest at ONHS on Wednesday afternoon. At 1:30.

My first thought: go to the school. Interview students, take pictures, write a blog post!

Then I had an even better idea: Counter-protest! Take our church people over there with rainbow signs because we are liberal and enlightened protest all the things! (And also, local coverage involving church name and location! You cannot buy that kind publicity!)

But then I thought… there are kids trying to go to school, on a school day. The last thing any public school needs is more traffic; and more adults who are not parents or faculty, marching up in there to be in the way when teachers are already dealing with a big distraction for the day. Besides, the principal of the school had alerted parents and students to the situation, and asked that they ignore anyone attempting to perform a demonstration outside the school.

A big ol’ church group showing up with rainbow signs…that plan has zero chill.

So I did NOT attempt to go and engage the sign-wielding whackos; nor did I go and witness it from a few streets over. And here’s what happened:

WBC showed up with four people.

That is not a protest. They are not a church and four people is not a protest.

This is not newsworthy. Not in any universe is this news.

These expressions of hatred and bigotry amount to nothing. Why do we keep shoving the microphone in their faces? Why do we keep taking their pictures and giving them screen time?

It’s one thing when these backward views get pushed into law–like the new round of “bathroom” laws, and other popular anti-LGBT measures– when they have real world effects, sure, we should push back.

But sometimes our “counter-protest–” be it the blog rant, the Facebook post, or the bold signs that #LoveWins–at times these demonstrations do more to promote the haters’ message than to diminish it.

There’s a “pastor” in Phoenix who is preaching all sorts of bizarre and violent vendettas against gay people. The short version is, he wants them all put to death. Literal death. You will notice I’m not providing a link to his material. Because the truth is, I would never have heard of him–and neither would you, and neither, probably, would most of his supporters–if CNN didn’t keep putting his crazy ass on the news.

I realize folks operating on this magnitude of delusion create a spectacle. But it’s a grotesque form of entertainment, at best–and a harmful promotion of a toxic gospel, at worst. And I want no part of it.

4 people… That’s not a church. That’s not a protest. Nobody’s coming to your party, bro.

They were ignored. They went home. Let this be a lesson.

And if you must engage–engage at a personal level. Push back with love, not in a public demonstration kind of way, but in a “let me show you a bit of my humanity” kind of way. I’m not exactly sure what that looks like…but we know it when we see it. Here is a powerful testimony of a former WBC member. It is the long (but well-worth-reading) story of how she came to manage the group’s Twitter account… And how her efforts to spread the church’s vitriolic message to the world led to her encounter other worldviews. The end result is a dramatic conversion.

And conversion rarely happens in soundbites. It happens in real time connection, and a gradual widening of the world. We may not always know how to make that happen. But in the meantime, we can stop shoving the microphone in the face of hate.

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