Westboro

One week ago, the Westboro Baptist Church was scheduled to show up on Temple's campus. Their aim was to protest the productions of the shows Rent and The Laramie Project, due to the portrayal of homosexuality in a positive light in both shows. The church was going to protest in two locations, in front of the Student Activities Center (pictured above) as well as in front of Tomlinson Theater.

Around 6:30, I left the Annenburg Hall Diglab and went down towards the SAC. Since Tomlinson is attached to Annenburg, I was able to scout out the crowd there as I passed by. There were a few people with signs in counterprotest, doing a group talk to rally their spirits against the Westboro Baptist picketers, but that was all.

Things, however, were much more lively down by the SAC.



Much, much more lively.



The sheer turnout of people was tremendous. I could not tell you exactly how many people showed up at the four-way intersection outside of the SAC, but I feel like there was at least a thousand counterprotesters there.

And the beautiful thing is, Westboro ended up not showing up. I heard some rumors in the crowd that a few showed up earlier and pulled out when they saw the sheer amount of counterprotesters, but I do not know if this is true or not. I personally hope it is, though.

Here are some of my favorite photos from the counterprotest.























I have never been more proud to call myself a Temple Owl.