We Stood Up for Love

For our last assignment, a fellow classmate, Talia Didomenica, did a video blog that informed us about how Judy Shephard would be visiting Albright on April 30th. As Talia explained, Judy is the mother of Matthew Shephard, the the Wyoming college boy who was beaten to death essentially for being homosexual, and on which the play The Laramie Project is based, which Albright will also be performing. Much of the campus, myself included, was very excited about these coming events. However, the excitement was somewhat put on hold when one night, a week prior to the event, it was discovered that Judy Shephard would not be the only visitor coming to Reading. The Westboro Baptist Church, an anti-homosexual, anti-American organization from Topeka, Kansas, was also planning on coming to Albright, or at least as close to it as they could get. It seemed they would come to protest not only Judy Shephard, but also the opening night of The Laramie Project, another common protest focus of theirs. The group was formed by Fred Phelps in 1955, and is now carried on by many of his own children. Phelps and the WBC picketed Matthew Shephard’s funeral and verbally harassed his parents and other attendees. The group mostly targets homosexuals, protesting at the funerals of AIDS victims, but also at the funerals of soldiers. They have now taken to following Judy Shephard around the country at the places where she speaks, and I was enraged when I heard they would be making an appearance at Albright; I was most definitely not alone. Within the hour, an event called “Stand Up for Love” had been made on Facebook, which turned out to be a very useful tool in this situation. By the second day of the event page being made, 250 members had volunteered to participate, students as well as non-students. Although many were infuriated by the prospect of the WBC coming to spread their hate, Albright students chose to go in a different direction, and spread their love.

The Westboro Baptist Church presents itself with hateful, cruel signs and vile words. Albright students chose to show how very different we are from them. As a demonstration to be against the WBC, students stood silently and peacefully with signs with quotes and proclamations of love such as “Hate is easy. Love takes courage.” Members of the demonstration wore white shirts with hearts on them and planned to stand united against the WBC’s hateful words that have hurt so many families and individuals. There is already too much hate and intolerance in the world, and so Albright students chose to oppose this in the most peaceful way possible. Louis Yurkovic, president of GSA, as well as Sarah Bruno, both met with Dean Crance, who was completely supportive of the idea, as long as we followed the proper procedures and promised to “keep it classy.” Members of The Laramie Project worried that this might add negative connotations to their performances, but if anything, it only increased campus and community support. Chaplain Paul Clark spoke inspirational words about the power of being silent: “It is not about having a voice, it is about controlling it. There is a beauty in being silent and drawing on every good thing that is in you. It sends out beautiful and power energy. Silence is about being free, silent presence is what matters.” There were also groups from the community, including one called Silent Witness, which participates in silent, peaceful demonstrations by holding up umbrellas in front of the demonstrators as a “spiritual shield from hate”. This can be seen in the video of the event. Albright College President, Lex McMillan, also sent a campus-wide e-mail showing his support and pride in Albright as an open campus. Public safety and Reading police were on hand to make sure that everything remained safe and non-violent. The WBC did not make their much-anticipated appearance, but the proclamation of love in the demonstration did exactly what it was supposed to do. Albright is not the first college to plan to demonstrate against the Westboro Baptist Church, and I am sure we will not be the last. Their hatred and intolerance is relentless, which is exactly why the love and acceptance of everyone else must be just as resilient.

There was a lot of organizational effort that led up to the actual demonstration, and there were a lot of people involved. My podcast consists of interviews with Public Safety Director, Robert Gerken, and audio from meetings that took place to help focus the event and to prevent from losing sight of the true cause, including the voice of Dean Crance. I also spoke with Kaitlyn “Fox” Smith ‘11, a participant and major contributor. The video took place on the days of the actual peace demonstration with footage of the students, Silent Witness, and non-students. I also interviewed Sarah Bruno ‘11, one of the students placed in charge, and Alanna Berger, Executive Director of Silent Witness. I was also excited to hear that when I was all done filming, Silent Witness would love to use my video and credit me for upcoming events that they participate in.

*** The reason for the change in quality during Kaitlyn Smith’s interview was due to camera troubles and having to re-record her interview from one camera to another.

*** I ask you: Please do not try to visit the actual website of Westboro Baptist Church as it is offensive and cruel I have been informed that every time it is visited, the WBC earns a profit.


Video, Editing, and Camera work by: Caitlin Sherman