Grady High students stand up to Westboro Baptist’s unique brand of dumb

Protestors from Westboro Baptist Church (you know, the “God Hates Fags” folks) reared their big, empty heads at several locations throughout Atlanta today to spread their message of blah, blah, blah, blah — their “message” isn’t even worth repeating, really.

Grady High School was among the locations where Westboro’s parishoners were spreadin’ the stupid, citing the school’s tolerance of homosexuality as reasoning for a demonstration. But they weren’t without opposition.

Grady student Becca Daniels organized a well-attended counter-protest this afternoon in Piedmont Park, and spoke with Youth Media International about the rationale behind her counter-demonstration. In that article, which was republished by The Huffington Post earlier today, Daniels says:

Today, I’m holding a student led demonstration of my very own — a complete antithesis to Westboro’s — and it’s at the same time as theirs. I’ve created a group on Facebook that has 2600 fans and counting. People from all over the country, who I have never met, are posting words of encouragement to me.

Our actions today are about unconditional love, tolerance, and acceptance towards others. My friends and I coined the name A-T-L, standing for Acceptance, Tolerance, and Love. We will congregate with signs devoted to love, have stations for participants to make shirts with the A.T.L. logo on them, and collect donations for AID Atlanta, a non-profit organization helping people living with HIV/AIDS in the Atlanta area.

CL photographer Joeff Davis (who took the accompanying photo) says that the handful of Westboro protestors were drowned out by more than 600 counter-protestors, and in the end, the Westboro folk were forced to hightail it to their vehicle when the mob in Piedmont Park started heading in their direction.