Fred Phelps brings “God Hates Fags” protest to NIU funerals

Students at Northern Illinois University were only just beginning to grieve over the tragic campus shootings that killed five of their own on Valentine's Day, when they were faced with even more pain.

The fundamentalist religious organization Westboro Baptist Church, based in Topeka, Kan. and led by Fred Phelps, posted messages on its Web site supporting the shootings and members came to Illinois to picket the funerals of slain students. The organization, found online at www.godhatesfags.com, claims that violence in the U.S. is the result of the country's general acceptance of homosexuality.

"I just am so beside myself," said Curtis Batterton, an NIU junior. "Really, just how anyone could do this to another person...I think doing this sort of thing is just inhuman."

"I don't understand how a human being could actually be so hateful."
-Nora Lindvall, NIU sophomore

Batterton is among more than a dozen NIU students who have turned their anger towards the Westboro group and feeling of helplessness over the shootings into positive action. They are standing outside of each victim's funeral, despite freezing winter temperatures, to protect grieving families and friends from the WBC's hateful messages. Using large tarps tied to poles, they block the mourners' sight of the WBC picketers.

The students were outside slain NIU victim Daniel Parmenter's funeral Tuesday. Though the protesters from Kansas never showed up, the previous night they had been at the funeral of another slain student. Students said the group held up signs that read, "Thank God for the shooter."

The WBC has garnered national attention for picketing the funerals of fallen soldiers. Since 1991, the WBC claims to have held more than 34,000 demonstrations. Fred Phelps heads the organization.

Shortly after the shootings, the NIU community became aware of the WBC's vocal support for the violence from its Web site. On the site, the WBC wrote: "Thank God for the NIU Massacre! They are in Hell!!!" The site declares that the shooter was sent by God and that there are no "innocents" in this massacre.

Outraged students protested these messages on Facebook, forming groups such as "Stop the WBC from protesting at the funerals of NIU students" and "NIU Students Against Westboro Baptist Exploiting Our Tragedy." Within six days, the groups had over 13,000 members.

The handful of students outside Parmenter's funeral have made it their mission to literally shield their fellow students' grieving family and friends.

"Right now," Batterton said, "we have the most vulnerable individuals of our community in a situation that they've been affected by a random act of violence that makes no sense. We just want to block [the WBC's] messages from the most vulnerable part of our communities so that they don't have to experience any more hurt or pain."

The WBC is scheduled to picket two students' funerals on Wednesday and a NIU campus-wide memorial on Sunday. The students plan to bring their tarps and silent presence to these events.

"Having experienced similar tragedies in my own life," said Nora Lindvall, an NIU sophomore, "I know from personal experience that you're so beside yourself that the last thing you could possibly want to deal with is something of this completely inhuman magnitude. I don't understand how a human being could actually be so hateful."

Lindvall, who is among the group of anti-WBC protesters, was right outside the lecture hall when the shooting took place. She had class in that room three days a week, she said, and she ran outside with the students racing from the room after the shooting broke out.

Lindvall will continue to bring her tarp to the upcoming funerals and memorial service, doing her part to help her community grieve in peace.

"I think we're going to be OK," she said. "We're going to stay strong and move forward together."

Further Reading: "On Heels of Tragedy at Northern, Daley Calls for Tougher Gun Laws Nationwide"