Lorde’s Fans Send Peace To Westboro Baptist Church Picketers Outside Her Kansas Concert
Lorde’s fans fought Westboro Baptist Church’s hateful protest with peace. When the notorious anti-gay church announced that they would be picketing the Kiwi international star’s Kansas concert, some of her followers decided to send them a rather loving message.
According to the WBC, they have the right to picket the 17-year-old “Royals” hitmaker’s show because “has NO wisdom worth having.”
“New Zealand came forth with a young lassie that doesn’t have enough sense to put in a thimble. Now the world has elevated her to the status of an idol. Then the world began to weigh in. They think this and that and blah, blah, barf,” the church wrote on its Web site.
Lorde did not appear to be worried about the group’s plan to cause noise outside her show at the Midland Theatre in Kansas City, but has advised her fans to wear rainbow clothes and “try to kiss church members who are the same sex as you they will so love it.”
She deleted the tweet soon after.
Some of her fans did more than that, though. They also held signs to protest WBC protesters, who were holding anti-gay signs of their own.
The WBC members held their usual signs, including “Fear God,” God Hates Fags,” etc, while Lorde’s fans held up more positive and colourful signs that read, “God Loves Everyone!” and “I Love Gay People!” among others.
But beyond the war of the words between two camps, there’s one other group that has delivered a different message.
Instead of arguing about what God loves and hates, this group of counter-protesters sympathised with the WBC’s loss of their founder Fred Phelps, who died at the age of 84 on Wednesday.
Their signs read “Sorry for your Loss” and “Live your life and be Awesome.”
Counter-protesters hold this sign up to Westboro Baptist members in front of Lorde concert downtown. pic.twitter.com/NmxP1gS2tM
— Brendaliss Gonzalez (@brendalissg) March 22, 2014
“We realised that it wasn’t so much about antagonising them, but sending out the countered safe that we are here for people who need that message and need that positivity,” Megan Coleman, who helped make the signs, told KSHB Kansas.
But apparently, their message expressing their sympathy for the loss of their founder meant was lost to the members of the church.
Long-time Westboro member Steve Drain told the news site, “I don’t even know what they’re saying.”
Nevertheless, Coleman still saw the positive effect of the WBC’s picketing, saying, “It still does kind of bring other people together and so I think it’s kind of counter-productive on that end.”