Westboro Baptist Church Protests on Mount Vernon Campus

By Emily Scott

Members of the Westboro Baptist Church protested at George Washington University’s Mount Vernon Campus on Friday afternoon. Many GW students also showed up on the Vern to counter-protest.

The WBC, a Kansas church known for its extreme opposition of homosexuality, among other extreme ideologies, announced on its website that it would be visiting GW’s Mount Vernon campus. Just hours after word of the WBC’s plan to protest spread, GW students organized an event on Facebook titled, “MVC Pride Rally and Counter-Protest.”

Undeterred by the rain, GW students gathered at the Mount Vernon quad on Friday afternoon before the protest.

“We want to counter their message of hate with a message of tolerance and positivity,” Caroline Gimello, a GW freshman who played a major role in organizing the Facebook event, said.

Students made posters in the basement of Ames Hall. Meghna Batra, a sophomore at GW, was directing the creation of posters. Batra’s instructions were, “We want to keep positive. No negativity, and no inappropriate words.”

The WBC protestors and the GW counter-protestors stood on opposite sides of the street, waving signs. According to the WBC website, their protest was supposed to last a half hour, but they left after 10 minutes.

Paulette, a WBC member from Kansas, explained what they were trying to accomplish by visiting GW.

“We try to hit as many of the college campuses and high schools as we can because they need preaching to, they’re not getting it in the pulpits, and they’re not learning it from their parents anymore, and the message in Mark and Matthew is to go and preach to every creature,” Paulette said.  

“We’re preaching ‘Repent or Perish.’ That’s the ultimate message. Repent from your evil ways or you will perish… in the lake of eternal fire.”

Before coming to the Vern, the WBC protested in front of the Supreme Court earlier on Friday. They also protested on Foggy Bottom in 2010. 

Estranged Son of Westboro Baptist Church Leader Speaks at GW

by Justin Lee

On Monday night, Nate Phelps, estranged son of Westboro Baptist Church leader Fred Phelps, gave a talk about his upbringing in the extreme Calvinist sect and his experiences adapting to secularism.  The event was co hosted by the GW Secular society and Allied in Pride, along with Phelps’ own organization, Center for Inquiry. 

Phelps talked for an hour about his father and the harsh set of religious doctrine and physical abuse he subjected Nate and the rest of the family to. Phelps recounted instances of his father’s deteriorating mental health, ranging from amphetamine abuse while his father was in law school to the detailed accounts of Fred Phelps beating his children and wife.  

Phelps then told of his life after he ran away from home. He talked about his experiences with different types of religion and coming to terms with his father’s abuse through therapy. Phelps ended his talk with a warning about how faith based organizations could pose a threat to the development of society.   A question and answer session then followed.

Westboro Baptist Church Comes to GW

Students swarmed on Washington Circle to counter-protest the controversial, gay-bashing Westboro Baptist Church’s picketing of GW early this morning.

The GW Patriot sponsored the event in response to claims made on the church’s website that “parents and teachers, including college professors, are responsible for raising a generation of God-hating heathens.”

The counter-protest received sizable support from the GW student community, with over 1,800 “attending” guests for the Patriot’s Facebook event. Though the initial Hatchet report estimated the actual crowd size at 200 attendees, Patriot writer and creator of the Facebook event, Dan Keylin, claimed there were as many as 350 protesters.

Four members of the Westboro congregation casually paced the outer rim of the George Washington University Hospital side of Washington Circle with their now famous “God Hates Fags” signs, while passionate students took to the Patriot’s designated protesting space, on the Northern half of the of the circle, with signs attacking the church members’ anti-gay sentiments. One protestor wandered the crowd dressed in a Jesus getup and held a “No I Don’t” sign to counter the Westboro slogan.

Despite the occasional cry of “You suck!” or “Go back to Kansas!” the crowd was relatively tame.

Westboro’s picketers smiled while flashing their signs to passing cars and zealous protesters. They even sang a version of pop star Lady Gaga’s single, “Telephone,” replacing the outspoken gay rights advocate’s words with their own lyrics.

The event ran without incident, ending with a raucous send off of "Na na na, hey hey hey, goodbye" as the church members left Washington Circle for their Veteran's Day protest at Arlington National Cemetery.

-Joseph Rabinowitz