WBC Pickets California School, Blames Gay-Straight Alliances for Terror Attack

A woman who survived last month’s terror attack in San Bernardino helped lead a pro-LGBT counterprotest of Westboro Baptist Church at the high school she attended on Monday.Â

Jennifer Stevens, a 22-year-old environmental services technician and LGBT ally, was shot in the abdomen during the rampage that left 14 of her colleagues from the San Bernardino County health department dead.Â

On Monday morning, Stevens joined hundreds of students, faculty and staff outside Redondo Union High School in Redondo Beach, California, as they overwhelmed a handful of picketers from the Kansas-based “God Hates Fags” church.Â

WBC elder Steve Drain told USA Today College that the anti-LGBT hate group chose Redondo Union for the protest in part because the San Bernardino shooting was “an outpouring of the wrath of God.”

â€œYouâ€™re talking about a whole nation that has embraced public policies and laws condoning and enabling and supporting sin, up to and including stuff like gay-straight alliances in the high schools,” Drain said.Â

According to the church’s website, WBC visited Redondo Union “to warn the living.”Â

“We do not know if there is a little soul that will hear these words and heed the warning and escape the wrath that is coming upon this earth,” the group wrote.Â

Lola Chase, co-president of Redondo Union’s Gay Straight Alliance, told Channel 11, the local Fox affiliate, that she and others organized the counterprotest with the help social media.Â

“This is the kind of school Redondo is â€” we are loving and liberal and accepted,” Chase said. “She [Stevens] was shot in the San Bernardino attacks so we think itâ€™s a big factor as to why they have signs that say â€˜God sent the shooter.'”

Brennon Mendez, a Columbia University student home on break, said if anything, WBC’s hatred actually fuels the type of violence seen in San Bernardino.Â

â€œItâ€™s despicable and disrespectful to the survivor, to her family, and to all survivors of mass shootings,â€ Mendez said.Â â€œBut the two issues are not unrelated. Hate speech causes you to form a violence against LGBTQ youth. In my opinion, the Westboro Baptist Churchâ€™s hate speech isnâ€™t just a barrage of offensive slurs, but also presents a grave threat to the health, wellness, and safety of the LGBTQ youth in the South Bay.â€

The handful of WBC picketers visited Redondo Union after protesting outside the Golden Globe Awards on Sunday night.Â

“They ought to be lucky ducks we were here to tell them the word of God today,” WBC memberÂ Rachael Hockenbargar told Channel 11.Â

Although counterprotests of WBC are common, Monday’s was one of the more remarkable responses to the group in recent memory. Â

Among those who joined the protest were former Redondo Beach MayorÂ Mike Gin, who was the first openly gayÂ RepublicanÂ mayor in California, as well as Redondo Union Principal Nicole Wesley.Â

“Itâ€™s one of those things where we take a negative experience and we turn it into a positive,” Wesley told CBS Los Angeles. “Itâ€™s time for them to go back to Kansas.”

Watch a report on the counter-protest above and below, watch students and their supporters cheer as the WBC leaves.Â

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Embedded images via Facebook

Cover images screenshots via CBS LA

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