Report back from "God Hates Fags" Protest

Picture: http://www.geocities.com/modanarcho/ghf.JPG

Several activists from the Direct Action Anti-Authoritarians (DAAA) Collective in Modesto first heard about the Westboro Church coming to Tracey last week, and were shocked. After calling several organizers with groups like PFLAG, and Marriage Equality, we headed up to Tracey not really knowing what to expect, from a group of people that call a High School a "sodomite whorehouse", simply for allowing a legal school group to exist on campus.

The turn out for support for the Gay Straight Alliance was good, with about 250 people, (according to media/activists). The "God Hates Fags" crowd did not show up at 9AM like their press release said, and instead they showed up at around 3PM, and then only for 20 or so minutes. Lots of people had colorful signs, many sported "We all Deserve the Freedom to Marry" stickers, and we looked sort of out of place with our pink bandanas and "Destroy Homophobia" banner.

We then followed a group of people to a nearby park, where food was being served, and people were gathering. Chanting "Viva viva GSA, homophobes just go away!", and "Our Lives, Our Choice", we made the walk to the park as fun as possible.

According to others in the group that were there later, the protest during when the Westboro Church members were there was uneventful. Only about 13 or so of them came out, (they are mostly all related), held their dumb signs, and dragged an American flag on the ground, so at least by the end of the day, every segment of American society was probably ready to rumble with these idiots for one reason or another!

We would say that the action was a success in the fact that the gay rights/liberation community was mobilized around an issue, and hopefully this organization can be used for future actions. However, it must be stated that the school did not want the GSA to even counter protest, and in the future we have to start going after the school administration as well. When the school made that decision, in effect they were basically saying that they would rather have the gay bashers come and protest the school, then let parents of little Johnny who was graduating that day come out and see that there are actually gay people in Tracey.

Homophobia on all fronts must be confronted, not just when it flys in from Arkansas and holds stupid signs.

http://www.modanarcho.tk