STANFORD, CA– News that the infamous Westboro Baptist Church (WBC) would be protesting at Stanford’s Hillel House divided much of the student body.
Many thought the WBC protesters should be met with a counter-protest to glorify tolerance and fight discrimination, while others believed that ignoring the church would be the best response. Tensions mounted until proponents of ignoring WBC organized a counter-counter-protest.
“It was really the only way to get across our message of not reacting and not directing any attention toward the whole thing,” explained an anonymous student protest-protest-protester. “So we decided to protest the protest of the protest, all in the name of tolerance.”
One of Stanford’s Christian youth groups also took offense to the extremism of the WBC, but took the side of the original counter-protesters. The group joined the fray, calling themselves the Protestant Protesters of the Protest Against the Protesting of the Westboro Protest. The WBC protesters, overwhelmed by crowding and confusion, left after only seven minutes.
Correction: There were several students selling controversial counter-tops, which also led to another counter-protest.
(Photo: Ralph Nguyen)
