Radicals, we

RCC is doing The Laramie Project. Today they found out that the Westboro Baptist Church (not really a baptist church) was planning to show up and picket the play. That set off a firestorm of emails throughout the RCC system. I'm sure the local tubes were alive with Westboro buzz. A counter demonstration was quickly planned. After work I headed over to the Riverside campus. On the way I called Scotty and Bill. They both were planning to be there.

The emails said that the Phelps family was going to show up at 7 and picket for an hour. I got there at around 5. The organizers wanted everyone to show up early so there would be a lot of people there when the wacko haters showed up. At first everyone was milling about near the quad, which was where The Laramie Project was playing. After a while we were told we had to move to the Free Speech area across from Landis Auditorium. They said the Westboro Baptist people would be escorted to where we were gathered.

It was pretty cool. Lots of young hippie types, both gay and straight, with lots of signs. The smell of Sharpie ink was in the air. The mood was light. As we were talking several of the kids would come up and ask me what The Laramie Project was or they'd ask about the Phelps family. Like I was the expert of my immediate area. Then a high ranking RCC lesbian got up in front of the crowd and gave us instructions on how to behave when the Westboro people showed up. We were asked to be completely silent and let all the hate come from them, not us. There were some grumbling murmurs from some of the people, but most agreed it would be better to keep things peaceful. Somewhere in all this Scotty and Bill showed up. Scotty was planning to take B to the play. I lost track of him about an hour before the show started. I'll find out later if they saw the show.

Well, it was a fine gathering of a large group of friendly people but in the end not much happened. We heard that the Westboro people got stuck in traffic and couldn't make it to RCC. I wasn't that surprised. I've heard that before, that sometimes they just don't show up. I think it's possible they may have gotten wind of how large the crowd was (I'm guessing 350) and decided against it. I hung out with the Odiens for another half an hour. Liam had run home and grabbed a guitar. We sang a couple songs and then split.

So hey, we won! The play opened without the Phelps family getting their two cents in, and people had a generally good time hanging around in the dark. It was just a little bit of a disappointment, though. We were so ready for them.