The Westboro Baptist Church brings its campaign of confrontation back to metro Atlanta this week, targeting high school students, Jewish groups and an indie rock festival.
The Topeka, Kansas church, known for picketing the funerals of U.S. soldiers, will hold its first protest Wednesday morning outside the Marriott Marquis, where the Jewish Community Center is holding a leadership conference. After that it's on to Douglass High School "to picket the rebellious brats of doomed America who have been raised by their parents, preachers and teachers to believe that God is a liar."
Next stop: the Jewish Georgian magazine, which plans no response, said editor Marvin Botnick, who declined further comment.
"The best thing to do is ignore them," said Bill Nigut, Southeast regional director of the Anti-Defamation League. "We discourage counterprotests. Responding to them isn't going to change them. And no one in the community takes them seriously."
While most are following Nigut's advice, Grady High School junior Becca Daniels said she couldn't help but take the protest personally. She lost an uncle to an AIDS-related illness and said silence was not an option.
"We needed to become that voice for the millions of people who live in silence every day," Daniels wrote in a column for Georgia Voice. But she won't be engaging in any rhetorical duels with the Westboro fundamentalists; Grady's A.T.L. (Acceptance, Tolerance and Love) demonstration will be held across the street at Piedmont Park, where Daniels will be soliciting donations for AID Atlanta. Her Facebook page promoting the event, scheduled for Thursday after school, boasts 2,710 members and counting.
Grady, like the other schools targeted, has discouraged students from even acknowledging the protesters. Police will be monitoring, however.
"Unfortunately, our principal will not allow us to take part in any counterprotesting due to the risk involved," said Avery Winchester, a senior at Druid Hills High, scheduled to be harangued by the church members Thursday morning. "We all understand that WBC wants to get a rise out of us, so we figure if we leave things alone and act as if no one is there, they will be defeated."
The Emory University student group Hillel plans a "virtual demonstration," circulating an online petition designed to promote a united front on campus.
"Anytime there's hate, we have to be prepared to stand up and respond," said Michael Rabkin, director of Emory Hillel. But with exams concluding Wednesday, there won't be much of an audience for the Topeka congregants.
It won't be the first time. In January 2007, the church obtained a permit to picket the Marietta funeral of Army Capt. Hayes Clayton Jr., 29, killed in a Christmas Day explosion in Iraq.
With an overflow crowd expected, the service had to be moved at the last minute to a bigger church a mile down the road. The Westboro contingent wasn't notified. They held their protest that day in an empty parking lot.
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