In a move that wasn’t exactly shocking the Westboro Baptist Church a hate group attempted to protest at the University of Missouri as a response to Michael Sam announcing that he’s gay. The group is known for picketing the funerals, stating that “God hates certain groups of people” and making the effort to implant the seeds of hate anywhere and everywhere the group goes.
While the hate group isn’t necessarily big it definitely knows how to make its presence felt and will announce where the group plans to go on social media. Fortunately today about 2,000 students joined together and built a human wall to block the view near Mizzou Arena.
Sarah Senff a student stated at the school stated “I think that it was brave and I was proud of him. I’m also proud of Mizzou because they didn’t make an issue of it. I think today was more about celebrating Michael Sam rather than anything to do with Westboro Baptist.”
A graduate student named Rachel Bauer said “I came out just to stand by a cause that I think is really worthy and to show that love really is greater than hate.”
The Supreme Court has ruled in favor of Westboro on several occasions as the First Amendment protects their ability to harass grieving families at funerals.
Since the highest court in the United States has routinely refused to do its job groups have formed to keep the hate group away. Bikers came out in droves to protect those mourning the death of principal Dawn Hochsprung who was one of victims during the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. The group did its job as those from Westboro backed off.
Interestingly enough Canada effectively banned the group as “hate speech is penalized by the federal government and provincial governments.” The United Kingdom used much stronger language when banning the group when their border agency said “we will continue to stop those who want to spread extremism, hatred and violent messages in our communities from coming to our country. The exclusions policy is targeted at all those who seek to stir up tension and provoke others to violence regardless of their origins and beliefs.”
With Canada and the UK effectively banning Westboro the question is now when will the US do the same? It’s considered by many as a hate group, not a religious group and still somehow gets tax exempt status. Does that make any sense at all?
As more people become involved there’s a possibility of violence. So, now is the best time to get rid of this hate group once and for all.