On March 6, 2011, the Westboro Baptist Church sent three protesters to Louisville, KY to protest the Catholic church. They protested from 4:30 to 5:00 PM at the St. Lawrence Catholic Church in Shively. The group had their infamous signs with slogans like "God hates fags" and a picture of a Guy Fawkes mask with cross hairs over. The protesters stood behind parked vehicles on the side of the road near the church.
The St. Lawrence Catholic Church chose to ignore the protest and asked protesters not to park in the church's lot and to stay out of the way as parishioners came to mass at 5 PM. The counter protest was not affiliated with the church in any way.
The counter protest
In response to the scheduled protest, several counter protests were organized, some via Facebook, others through fliers and word of mouth. Counter protesters were already armed with signs and waiting at 3:30 PM, talking jovially among one another and checking out each other's signs and outfits. Approximately 200 people attended the counter protest.
The Westboro Baptist Church has inspired numerous types of signs, from the serious to the funny to the bizarre, all of which were well represented at the protest. Some organizers specifically asked those holding signs that could be seen as particularly incendiary to not display those during the protest and those who made the signs respected the wishes of the organizers.
There were signs saying that God loves everyone, others saying things like "Westboro Bigot Church" and "Dorothy Left Kansas for a Reason." There were also the more bizarre signs like "More Sugar," "Mark it an 8, Dude," "God loves ninjas," and "Westboro, I'm happy for ya and I'mma let you finish, but Charlie Sheen has the most delusional beliefs ever," referring to Kanye West's stunt involving Taylor Swift and Charlie Sheen's latest debacle.
There were police present to make sure that peace was maintained. Caution tape was placed around the counter protesters. One protester climbed on top of a church sign and was made to get down and taken aside by the police. He was not removed from the protest. When the Westboro protesters returned to their cars, the counter protesters walked up to their car and protested as they drove off. The crowd was quickly disbursed by the police.
The First Amendment
One local television station stated on their website that the counter protesters showed up in opposition to Westboro's right to protest. That is not the case. The counter protesters themselves were exercising their right to peacefully assemble as well. In the crowd, there was no discussion of denying Westboro's right to protest. Both groups peacefully assembled and worked with the police officers who were there to exercise their rights to protest.
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