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

GW Patriot/WRGW Live Blog!!!

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Former GW Student Charged with Federal Crimes

Four men, including a 2006 GW alumnus, have been arrested for attempting to unlawfully gain entry to Senator Mary Landrieu's (D-LA) New Orleans offices, posing as telephone repairmen, according to a copy of an FBI affidavit unsealed today.

Among those arrested was 24-year-old Stan Dai of Naperville, Illinois, a GW political science major who, according to the GW Alumni Directory, was a member of NROTC and the College Republicans. WRGW has also learned that Dai was assistant editor of the GW Patriot (who, incidentally, penned a piece in 2004 cleverly titled "The Penis Monologues").

Also part of the botched operation was James O'Keefe, the young conservative activist who secretly videotaped an ACORN office posing as a pimp in August of 2008. O'Keefe's footage was seminal in ultimately compelling Congress to revoke ACORN's federal funding.

According to the affidavit, two of the men - Joseph Basel and Robert Flanagan - entered Landrieu's offices wearing fluorescent vests, denim pants, blue work shirts, tool belts and hard hats. They then gained access to an electrical closet and attempted to manipulate the phone lines. All four were later apprehended by U.S. Marshals after failing to show proper identification.

The group is charged with entering federal property under false pretenses. They could each face up to 10 years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine, if convicted.

According to reports by Gawker.com, Dai was also head of GW's Conservative Student Union and was quoted in a 2004 article supporting a group of pro-life activists who disrupted a John Kerry campaign rally.

He was the recipient of a scholarship from the conservative Phillips Foundation and is an assistant director at Trinity Washington University's Intelligence Community Center of Academic Excellence.

WRGW's Simon Hernandez-Arthur contributed to this report.