Lanes of honking traffic and a handful of police officers divided an angry church and rowdy crowd in Blacksburg Friday.
Westboro Baptist Church members staged three protests Friday, targeting the Jewish and gay communities and the death of Virginia Tech student Morgan Harrington.
The group traveled in a Kia Sedona van to Blacksburg’s Jewish Community Center, then down the block to the corner of North Main Street and Roanoke Street. Next, the van made its way through a pack of school buses to Blacksburg Middle
School as middle school students left and displaced Blacksburg High School students arrived at school.
There were no arrests or violent incidents. Police intervened to keep community counter-protests across the street from the WBC members in front of the middle school, as the crowd momentarily advanced to the median.
PROTESTERS
The WBC protest was directed at the community for causing the death of Morgan Harrington by tolerating various groups the church interprets as sinful.
Shirley Phelps-Roper, eldest daughter of the church founder Fred Phelps, led the six protesters. The group consisted of three adults and three children.
The group was armed with signs bearing slogans such as “The Jews killed Jesus,” “Fag Hokies,” and “God is your Enemy.”
Phelps-Roper hailed the protest as a successful endeavor.
“It’s a 10,” Phelps said, before quickly correcting herself. “Out of 10, it’s a 12.”
A few feet away, Tommy McDearis, pastor of Blacksburg Baptist Church, looked on quietly.
“God is not a god of hatred,” McDearis said. “It’s been embarrassing. For two weeks people have been calling me asking what I think about them.”
“They don’t represent the God I speak about.”
Blacksburg Middle School eighth-graders Alanah Flad and Gabrielle Meek stood on the edge of the school property after their school day was over and watched the WBC protest.
“I think it’s crazy, especially since they have kids,” Meek said.
Phelps-Roper brought her two kids along, seven-year-old Luke and 11-year-old Noah. She said earlier that Luke was the group’s second most active member, after Phelps-Roper herself.
Ben Phelps also brought his daughter, six-year-old Anna.
Flad said the day was anything but average inside the walls of the middle school, as students stood up for the groups the WBC members targeted with their protests.
“Everyone I know was wearing gay rights T-shirts and yarmulkes,” Flad said. “That’s all we talked about.”
The group left BMS at 2 p.m. Phelps-Roper said the WBC members had protested in Charleston, W.Va., Thursday night. The WBC Web site said the next protest is scheduled for Des Moines, Iowa.
COUNTER-PROTESTERS
“Positive energy, people!” said Blacksburg vice mayor and Tech professor Susan Anderson as she implored community counter-protesters to remain calm.
About 150 counter-protesters followed the WBC protesters from Blacksburg’s downtown area to their stop in front of Blacksburg Middle School.
Some of the most dynamic counter-protesters were trying to keep the atmosphere light.
Several Tech sophomore students wearing only Speedo bathing suits, orange “fan hair” wigs, and orange paint on their bodies made themselves known by dancing — constantly.
Ryan Selph, Lake Carter and Ryan Bolling called themselves the “party boy protesters.”
“You’ve got to fight stupid with stupid,” Selph said. “These people aren’t rational. There’s no point in getting mad at it. We’ve got to stand up for each other.”
At the last stop on the group’s tour of Blacksburg, WBC leader Phelps-Roper said her group always draws a reaction.
“I mean, can we bring out a crowd or what?” Phelps-Roper said. “They have to render an opinion. We get their snappy backsides right off the fence. And they all landed on the dung heap.”
An unofficial student counter-protest drew about 200 students to the GLC Plaza. Dan Harrington, Morgan Harrington’s father, was also in attendance. His wife, Gil Harrington, is currently in Zambia on a medical volunteer mission.
“I applaud the students and administration for doing a peaceful rally,” Dan Harrington said. “Why are they here? Why would they target my daughter? Why villify her? She was murdered.”
Harrington marched down College Avenue along with student supporters. Standing on the street corner under a sign that read, “God and VT love Morgan Harrington,” he raised his voice along with Tech students chanting the name of his daughter at the WBC members across the street.
After the counter-protest, student organizer Jeff Chuang said he counted the event as both a failure and a success.
“If you’re thinking about how much we planned to want to happen, it was a complete failure,” he said. “But in terms of fundraising, it was a complete success. After seeing the response from the community and all the positive responses, I was like, ‘Wow,’” Chuang said.
Eighth-grader Rob Vanzanten stood outside with a shirt that said “I’m gay” and a sign saying “If you hate the U.S. then get out.”
Rohan Kumar, a fellow eigth-grader at BMS, came out to support Vanzanten — even leaving school early to support his friend.
“It makes me feel good everybody is out here,” Kumar said. “We should learn to love everybody.”
Other counter-protesters attempted to tear down the WBC logic.
Josh Olinger, a junior at Radford University through Virginia Western College, visited Blacksburg with his brother and friend.
“They twist Bible verses,” Olinger said. “Nowhere in the Bible does it say God hates fags.”
Olinger’s signs were designed to twist Bible verses of his own, referencing situations when people in the Bible were told to eat their own feces, to not eat shellfish, and to not clip their beards.
Amy Eller, the parent of a Blacksburg Middle School student, was part of the traffic jam in front of the middle school as the WBC protesters arrived.
She said she disapproved of the group’s protest outside the school.
“I think it’s kind of despicable,” Eller said. “I believe they are trying to find irate parents — maybe to sue them.”
However, she was proud of the community’s response.
“I’m kind of enjoying this,” Eller said. “Blacksburg is fiercely protective of each other. I think it shows the beauty that is Blacksburg.
AUTHORITIES’ RESPONSE
Protesters filled Blacksburg Friday, but they were separated and organized by the local authorities that also lined the streets.
Kimberly Crannis, Blacksburg chief of police, said the protests took a great deal of planning.
Crannis said the police have been corresponding with Montgomery County Police for “the last couple of weeks” while “planning for security for the protesters and any counter-protesters.”
Approximately 50 uniformed and non-uniformed police officers were deployed for the day’s events.
Crannis said there were no major issues.
“Both sides were able to get their message out, and they did it in a peaceful manner,” Crannis said.
Crannis said the Ku Klux Klan protest along Draper Road in the early 1990s was “really the last major protest that we’ve had ... and it was a non-event, which was good. Nobody showed up, which made it even better.”
The WBC protest and counter-protests were well-handled according to Phelps-Roper.
“In this place they are doing a wonderful job,” Phelps-Roper said of the Blacksburg and Virginia Tech police.
She added that the WBC has received about 200 threatening e-mails from the Tech community.
Blacksburg town manager Marc Verniel said the town’s duty was to make sure all parties could express their views without incident.
“I think our role was to make sure everything was orderly,” Verniel said. “People have been on their best behavior and exercised their right to free speech.
reported by gordon block, liana bayne, philipp kotlaba and zach crizer