Westboro Demonstration Draws Community Together, Pasadena Church Says

Sometimes, when you try to divide, you unite as Westboro Baptist demonstrators, outnumbered by trained peacekeepers, messages of love and a cellist, may have learned Monday during their disruption of the normal goings-on at Sequoyah School.

Spurred on by news Westboro was coming to broadcast a discordant message directed at the school which rests on its campus, Neighborhood Unitarian Universalist Church (NUUC) issued a call for comity that drew upwards of 130 people to its weekend poster-making and peacekeeping workshops.

The estimated number of Westboro protesters at the demonstration was 12, according to police. Those who came to ensure a more harmonious atmosphere numbered 35.

“Everything worked out as planned,” said Luis Sierra Campos, NUUCs social justice and inclusion coordinator. “Students were safely escorted to their morning meeting and a student from Sequoyah played the cello to counter [Westboro’s] music.”

The workshops drew from beyond the Sequoyah community, from places like Eagle Rock High School, the all-girl Westridge School, and parents of LGBTQ parents. These were added to numbers generated by NUUC and Sequoyah themselves.

Some 65 people participated in the peacekeeping workshop, with the aforementioned 35 reporting for duty.

Kansas-based Westboro Baptist announced its plans to demonstrate at Sequoyah over its disapproval of a student there because she is both Rose Bowl Queen and openly LGBT.

For more see Demonstrators, Counter Demonstrators Face Off at Anti-LGBTQ Rose Queen Protest .