CA: In January and February, the Westboro Baptist Church, a hate group from Topeka, Kansas, targeted schools, religious institutions and other organizations across California.
We'd like to share a few of the creative, peaceful ways students and community members are responding to Westboro's message of hate, and open our comments section up to spread the word about any other unity activities taking place across the state.
community response
San Francisco Bay Area, CA: Fred Phelps of the so-called Westboro Baptist Church, a hate group from Topeka, Kansas, is targeting San Francisco-Bay Area schools, organizations, and houses of worship to picket this coming week. We'd like to help facilitate community strategies for response.
Phelps has been spreading his message of hate for years, targeting Jewish institutions and those he considers gay-friendly. Communities across the country that have been targeted by him and other hate groups have chosen different ways to respond to their organizing and hateful speech. The Anti-Defamation League is not alone in suggesting that the best response is no response at all. The hate group craves publicity. If Phelps’ people hold up their hate signs on an empty street, with no one watching, and no news cameras around, that is indeed fitting rejoinder to their message.
Dec. 15, 2009-Jan.10, 2010
Sacramento, CA: Churches and synagogues offer support to an Orthodox synagogue hit with anti-Semitic graffiti on New Year's Eve, the second Jewish center vandalized in a month. Both synagogues were hit by arson a decade ago, as chronicled in a Not In Our Town video.
Buffalo, NY: A lesbian left blind in one eye following a hate attack outside a gay nightclub, is comforted by the many messages of support left on her Facebook page.
Tragedy Shapes Community Leadership
Joselo Lucero never imagined that he would become a spokesperson and a symbol for community safety and immigrants’ rights. As he spoke Saturday night before the crowd gathered at the site of his brother’s murder one year earlier, the hundreds who had gathered despite inclement weather stood rapt.
Supporters gathered with TVUUC members for a group photo before the "Instruments of Peace" anniversary event (Photo Courtesy: Karen Krogh)
One year ago this week, a man armed with a shotgun and filled with hatred entered Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church (TVUUC) while congregants performed the theatre production “Annie.” As Jim Adkisson opened fire on the packed sanctuary, he took the lives of two people and injured six. The unemployed truck driver later confessed to hating liberals and gays.
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