WESTWOOD—The Westboro Baptist Church—known for its extreme ideologies, especially those against homosexuality— picketed two educational institutions in the greater Los Angeles Area on Friday, November 9. WBC sent two of its members to picket Loyola High School -- a Jesuit preparatory school for young men before moving on to picket at the University of California Los Angeles.

Timothy Phelps Picketing outside of Loyola High School. Photo by Robert L. Meyers

WBC chose to picket the high school in “Order to remind you that priests rape boys,” according to the organization's website, “You teach them G-d is a liar every time you put money in the collection plate.”

The website also had this to say regarding the picket at UCLA, “The only things these brutes are learning in college is how to get drunk or high - or both, and how to fornicate their brains out.”

The picket of Loyola High School was met with a small counter-protest unaffiliated with the school itself.  “As Christians we just came out here to tell people that the bible does not say that G-d hates anyone, it says he loves everyone and gives salvation,” said Briana Calvin, one of the counter protesters, “and we came out to show them [WBC] what we believe.”

Timothy Phelps—son of the Church’s Patriarch, Fred Phelps and one of the two church members picketing the schools—stated, “[WBC] is protesting because the children of this generation are being lied to about the standards of God, by these sinful institutions.”

LGBT members and student body at UCLA, Counter WBC Protest, Photo by Robert L. Meyers

At the University of California Los Angeles, the picketing by the Westboro Baptist Church would have gone widely unnoticed by the student body, except for a last minute rally organized by the Campus LGBT community. “It was not so much a protest as taking a moment to stand together in solidarity,” said UCLA student, Sirus Sinai. “We want people around us to know that we are not going to just let them [WBC] come onto our campus and say these things," she added.

“Only two WBC members were here protesting,” says third-year UCLA student, Guillermo Cisneros.  “It was really inspiring to see everybody come together.  We really want to keep our campus tolerant and excepting of everybody, not just the LGBT community. I think there protest of the institution itself was just an excuse to come onto the campus," he added.

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