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Westboro Baptist anti-gay protesters face Redondo Union High School's counter-protest
File: Megan Phelps-Roper of the Westboro Baptist Church, a Kansas church known for its vehement anti-gay positions and for protesting at U.S. soldiers' funeral, stage a protest across the street from Northwestern High School in Hyattsville, Maryland, outside Washington, on March 1, 2011. The church was demonstrating against what it claims is a "pervert-run" school and said teachers across the country have "broken the moral compass of this generation."
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Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images
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Westboro Baptist Church was met by hundreds of counter-protesters Monday morning at Redondo Union High School, where they had planned a picketing event "to warn the living."
When 17-year-old Lola Chase got wind that the church, infamous for radically protesting against gay rights, planned to picket her high school, she got her community together to make a statement of its own.
“They came to our school to preach hate, and it really upset us, and I knew Redondo would not stand for that,” Chase, president of Redondo Union's Gay-Straight Alliance, said.
A Facebook invitation outlining a peaceful counter-protest envisioned by Chase and her friends garnered more than 400 supporters. On Monday morning, a sea of rainbow-clad counter-protesters set about drowning out the display from the church members holding signs that read "'Christians' caused f** marriage" and "God sent the drought."
Redondo police said the event went smoothly and no arrests were made, the Daily Breeze reported. It added that Westboro Baptists typically target high schools with pickets after awards shows.
One church picketer says in a video by the Daily Breeze, "It's another filthy high school, bunch of filthy kids as well, so why not."
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Chase said that members of the counter-protest held a large rainbow flag in front of the Westboro Baptist picketers.
“It was really good to see all of the support and love from everyone in the community,” Chase told KPCC.
Westboro Baptist Church is known for picketing at funerals of public figures and soldiers killed in war, spreading its message that God hates America for tolerating homosexuals. Meanwhile, Chase said that Redondo Union is a very "liberal and loving" high school.
Westboro's picket schedule said the protest would last from 7 to 7:30 a.m. at Redondo Union.
"They showed up late and they left a little early," Chase said. "So we definitely...I would say we won."
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