Leave Our Homos Alone

What a great line to start an entry off with! I love it. It is a quote from a high school girl who was fed up with protesters who were visiting her town because of a gay citizen in her town.

I read about Michael Shakelford in September in an article in the Washington Post entitled “In the Bible Belt, Acceptance Is Hard-Won”. I was touched by the courage of this young man and how mean people at his school and the community had been to Michael and his mother.

But now, something miraculous has happened. The Westboro Baptist Church from Topeka, Kansas was arriving in Michael’s town of Sand Springs, Oklahoma to protest the town’s acceptance of homosexuality and the churches there that are not being outspoken enough to condemn homosexuality. It seems the town has started to show some support for Michael in coming out against the protesters. It’s a story with a silver lining, I suppose you could say.

There are some people in this world who are made to be destroyed. - Fred Phelps

The fliers arrived three weeks ago. Some came over the fax machines of local churches, and others appeared mysteriously around town. Printed in bold was the heading “Westboro Baptist Church.” No seeming cause for alarm. Sand Springs, population 18,500, is a Christian stronghold in the gently rolling hills of eastern Oklahoma.

But the message that followed was a rant against a 17-year-old Sand Springs resident named Michael Shackelford and his mother, Janice, the subjects of a recent Washington Post series examining Michael’s struggles as a young gay man in the Bible Belt. The fliers posted a photo of Michael, called him a “doomed teenage fag” and announced that followers of Westboro Baptist in Topeka were on their way from Kansas to stage antigay protests in Sand Springs. [...]

When Phelps announced that his group was coming to picket at several churches and the high school, fresh battle lines were drawn. To many here, homosexuality was a sin, but Michael Shackelford was their sinner. Just as the November election was reducing moral issues to red or blue, Sand Springs confronted subtler shades of truth. Janice Shackelford was terrified by the persecution of her son, then surprised by what happened next.

“This Westboro outfit thought they could come to this town and break it apart,” Janice said. “But it has brought the town together. It has opened some doors to talk.” [...]

The response surprised Michael, who thought he would be cast out. People were being nice to him. Only a few weeks earlier he’d been called a “queer” at Arby’s. Now there was a new menace in Sand Springs, and it was Fred Phelps. [...]

Inside the church, the congregation was standing and the six-piece guitar band was rocking. The music and energy built until Pastor Eubanks bounded onstage.

“There is darkness and there is light and we are in the middle of the light,” Eubanks said, to more thunderous applause. “Say it: God loves us all. All of us!”

After the service, several people came up to hug Janice. One woman held her in an embrace that lasted two minutes, whispering to Janice the whole time.

A burly man with a crew cut gave Michael a thumbs-up. “Man, you be who you are,” Shannon Watie said, holding his Bible. “We got your back.” (source)