Brody's Notes... University of Illinois at Chicago Student Using Westboro Baptist Church As Fundraiser

UIC Students Counter-Protest Against WBC

Photo By The UIC Chicago Flame Newspaper 

By Brody Levesque (Washington DC) Mar 29 | Fred Phelp's Westboro Baptist Church holding another protest in the church's long running campaign of harassment of Queer groups, Jews, military families and others, conducted a tour of Chicago recently. at one of the entrances to the campus of the University of Illinois at Chicago. UIC students and supporters held a counter demonstration directly across the street using humorous and satirical signs to mock WBC. 

But with a rather unique twist on countering the Phelp clan's usual vitriolic hate-filled diatribes, UIC student Jason Connell used appearance of the hate group to raise money for queer rights groups such as Human Rights Campaign, International AIDS Foundation and Chicago based Jerusalem Open House. Donations were named in honor of the Westboro Baptist Church and community thank you cards will be sent from the non-profits to WBC leader Fred Phelps. Connell called it a, "Lemons to Lemonade" situation.

Kurt Esslinger Lee, an Presbyterian ordained minister from the UIC Agape House Christian Campus Ministry said, 

"We don't care so much about this group of hate, we know that they are not going to listen to anything we say. What we are care about is the closeted, afraid LGBTQ students around UIC who are are taught to hate themselves to think that god is also loathing them, so we reaching out to them to break through that ignorance."