XX Factor: the blog

Anti-Gay Protesters Target Obama Girls

I'm sure that President Obama and his wife have done their best to prepare their daughters for the idea that there are crazy people out there whose hatred for their father extends to them (although it's not a job I envy). But it's difficult to prepare for this, posted on the website (a site so offensive that I didn't link to it) of the Westboro "Baptist" Church, which has organized an anti-gay protest outside of Sidwell Friends, the school the Obama girls attend: "Quakers?! Are you frigging kidding me? You pretend to be all non-violent, and you allow the most bloody, deceitful, evil, murderous bastard and his shemale sidekick to place their satanic spawn within your four walls?"

It's hard to imagine any parents or teachers keeping their cool under these circumstances. That kind of of venom, directed at a pair of very young girls, sounds like the kind of crazy that sparked incidents like 9/11 and the Oklahoma City bombing, and possibly the shooting at Fort Hood, the victims of which the President was remembering even as these protesters awaited their close-up.

But according to TPM LiveWire, the school refused to engage.

"We support the First Amendment here, so there was nothing we wanted to do about it," [a spokesman] said. "There was nothing they did other than offend those who didn't agree with their bigoted viewpoints."

Offend, indeed—I can't imagine anyone of any political stripe who wouldn't be offended by this attempt to terrorize a pair of grade-schoolers. But the school's response was measured and cool. Be offended, if you wish, but the best thing to do is just look away.

Tags: first amendment, Obama

KJ Dell'Antonia Former Manhattan lawyer and prosecutor, Xxtra Small reviewer, parent of four. Lover of books and bacon.

Comments

creswell, I'm surprised to

By: norahc | Thu, 11/12/2009 - 12:32

creswell,
I'm surprised to see someone trying to turn this into a conservative vs. liberal issue considering the fact that conservatives hate Westboro just as much as liberals do and have also been picketed by them. I can't see too many people supporting an organization that pickets the funerals of our fallen soldiers who have died defending our freedoms.

Westboro Church calls for death of more US troops

By: Ejackhtown | Thu, 11/12/2009 - 11:25

RE: CRESWELL

The issue is family! Before you defend Westboro, try doing a Google search. You will find out that Westboro is a hate factory that protests the funerals of US service members killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Why? They think that God is punishing the US for accepting homosexuality by sending our troops back in body bags. They issued a press release calling for more (23,000 I think) US troops to be killed. They are targeting President Obama's children to get to him and bothering grieving families during an unimaginably difficult time for no reason. Don't let your political myopia blind you to what's right and wrong. Not everything is about liberal vs conservative, or red vs blue. When Al Qaeda is setting up and IED, do you think they care if a 19-year-old kid or someone's mother orr father is a liberal or a conservative?

Basic rules of human decency demand that when we have a problem with someone, we DO NOT go after their children. There is no excuse for such immorally, craven behavior.

Liberal Double Standard II

By: creswell | Wed, 11/11/2009 - 22:37

Again liberals cry victim hood, the common theme is "protesting at a school". Since liberals can do it, so shall some members of the Westboro Baptist Church. Get over it.

If the best thing to do is

By: lagne | Wed, 11/11/2009 - 14:08

If the best thing to do is look away (I agree), why are you giving them coverage on your site?

Westboro protests everyone:

By: norahc | Wed, 11/11/2009 - 12:42

Westboro protests everyone: schools, funerals, other churches, other countries, etc. Talking about them within the context of the "evils of religion" like Lil V did is just useless since they are about attention whoring more than anything else. They've also made a fortune from collecting fees when their protests get disrupted. It's about money and media attention for them, not religion. If the media would stop giving Westboro airtime and start ignoring them then they probably would quietly go away.

Sad, but not surprising

By: linzonein | Wed, 11/11/2009 - 10:56

Several days after a fatal shooting during my freshman year of high school the area surrounding the campus was swarming with religious zealots and picketers screaming at students on their way to and from classes. If we hadn't all been "devil worshippers" and "faggots", surely god wouldn't have allowed this to happen.

Our administration informed us the picketers were attempting to bait us into violence so they could sue the school system, and had apparently done so on numerous occasions because hurt children are easy to anger. I don't remember what "church" these predators claimed to be from, but I do know they couldn't possibly believe every teenage student in the school was a satan-loving homosexual and their shrieking would bring us to god, they just wanted to hurt us.

I'll never understand this kind of filth.

By: Mark | Wed, 11/11/2009 - 10:24

First the Right thought it was all in good fun to mock the Clinton daughter. Then the Left thought it was a ripping good laugh to turn the Bush girls into fodder for their amusement. We then got to enjoy the Palin travesty... Now the Obama girls? Sheesh.

Can we just leave children alone?

Sure, when an adult is involved in their parent's campaign, they're fair game. In every other case, you're just being heartless. I pity those poor girls, though I am thankful that they at least aren't having their names dragged through the mud on television shows and the butt of low class comedians' jokes.

Yeah, I don't think so Creswell...

By: nagatuki | Wed, 11/11/2009 - 09:57

By: creswell: If it was fine and dandy for liberals to show up and protest the appearance of Justice Clarence Thomas at several schools since 1991, so turn around is fair play for our side to do the same.
~~~~~~~~~
As another posted already, there's a massive difference between an old man and his policies protested and two little girls who just want to learn to read without harassment. If the Westboros really wanted to protest they'd go to the source of their agitation (I assume the White House is in the same city) instead of picking on defenseless children.

But hey, it's easier to pick on a smaller target - it's what bullies do.

Besides, I'm not sure why you'd even mention Thomas; there have been many republicans protested, and the most obvious choice would be the previous president - if you want to point out tit for tat - but I have a feeling you chose him because he's black and only that.

If I'm wrong please clarify, but I'm not sure you can dig that deep to explain it.

happens all the time

By: saintlylrb | Wed, 11/11/2009 - 08:42

The Obama girls are far from alone in being picketed by this "church" because of who they are. My children's school was also picketed by the Westboro group.

It's difficult to deal with, but my children's school also maintained a dignified silence, and my children learned a valuable lesson: that not everyone is a reasonable human being.

Freedom of speech, like other freedoms, is painful but worth the cost; and the Obama daughters are no more or less deserving of sympathy than my own daughters. That's life in the United States.

Re: "Liberal Double Standard"

By: norcalmaya | Tue, 11/10/2009 - 23:45

There is a line the size of the Grand Canyon that delineates the difference between Clarence Thomas and the Obama children. Thomas would be picketed for his policies, statements, decisions, etc. The Obama children were picketed specifically for their father's alleged actions. If you cannot see the difference, then you do belong with the Westboro Baptists, to whom you have firmly allied yourself.