Protesters take on Gainesville

The home of the Florida Gators received more than the standard football crowd on Sunday, April 18, as members of the Westboro Baptist Church visited Gainesville to demonstrate their beliefs to the community.

Lead by Shirley Phelps, daughter of Fred Phelps, the founder of Westboro, picketers came out to several key locations to demonstrate against homosexuality, abortion and several other issues. Westboro is known for picketing at the funerals of soldiers killed during the current war and desecrating the American flag.

Westboro Baptist Church was not the only group of people to come out to Gainesville: several people picketed side by side Westboro, offering their own answer to the beliefs of the Baptist Church.

"The message we want to send out is that Jesus is not on direct connect. You can't chirp him. You have to pray like the rest of us," said Jazz Davis, GED Instructor of the Levy County branch of CFCC.

Despite the vocal beliefs of both sides, the demonstration went on without incident with police standing by just in case the situation got out of hand.

The schedule of Westboro had been on their website, godhatesfags.com, for over a month, giving each side time to get their respective plans in order.

"There is a scripture in the bible that says God so loved the world and I am pretty sure that means us,"Davis said. "That is what the message is; it includes everybody."

From signs saying things like "God hates fags" on one side to "God loves gorilla's", both sides had their own individual messages to send out and support.

"We forgive them, no hate towards them," said Davis. "You assume that when a person is ill you show them sympathy, so I assume that these people are mentally ill. They do not deserve our hate, they deserve our forgiveness, so we forgive them."

Members of the Westboro Baptist Church declined to comment when approached with a chance to answer any questions.

"I think we are all making a very positive move here," said picketer Jake Mullen. "We are all here to stand up for what we believe in."

The picketing began at Trinity United Methodist Church and then moved to the University of Florida and finally to Catholic Church Queen of Peace. The members of Westboro left Gainesville after the picketing at Queen of Peace.

Despite whatever faction one believes in, the rights of Americans to demonstrate peacefully can be seen in every state including the state of Florida.