WBC To Protest Service for Gomes

The Westboro Baptist Church plans to protest Harvard’s memorial service for the late Reverend Peter J. Gomes, according to the church’s spokesperson Shirley Phelps-Roper. The service for Gomes, who died last month, will be held on April 6 in Memorial Church.

Gomes died last month after serving 35 years as the Pusey Minister of the Memorial Church. He was long revered as the University’s spiritual leader and as a prominent advocate for equality both on campus and around the world.

Gomes, who was openly gay, has been a frequent target of the Kansas church that is best known for picketing military funerals to protest what it views as the pro-gay agenda of the United States. The church is notorious for displaying offensive signs when picketing while shouting homophobic slurs and language condemning the United States.

Phelps-Roper said that the upcoming picket will be the latest of many that the group has held in protest of Gomes, including demonstrations against several of his speaking engagements in Kansas.

“He, in the name of God, teaches rebellion against God. You may not say ‘gay Christian,’” said Phelps-Roper, explaining why the Church had chosen to protest Gomes’ memorial service. “That’s called an oxymoron and highly educated students should know what that is.”

Memorial Church spokesperson Justin Mullane said that church officials are aware of WBC’s plans and that the Harvard University Police Department has been notified.

The Cambridge Police Department and HUPD did not immediately return requests for comment.

WBC has picketed at Harvard several times in the last few years, including holding a picket outside of Harvard      Hillel this past December.

That protest, along with those from years before, prompted counter-protests by a variety of Harvard student groups. The Crimson that reported December’s counter-protest drew between 200 and 300 students.

Marco Chan ’11—co-chair of the Harvard College Queer Students and Allies and who helped plan counter-protests in the past—said that the QSA would consider how to respond to the WBC’s latest plans.

“I’ve been proud of how the Harvard community has responded every time,” he said. “It’s more about our own commitment to tolerance and diversity than it was about them.”

Chan said that the QSA may be hesitant to protest again given concern that putting the spotlight on WBC would detract from the celebration of Gomes’ life and teachings.

He also said that the WBC’s visits have grown so frequent that a counter-protest might not be the most effective response.

According to University Spokesperson John D. Longbrake, WBC protesters will not be permitted to enter University property and will only be able to access city and public property.

Phelps-Roper said her group, which is currently planning on bringing seven people, will protest at a busy intersection in Harvard square.

She said her Church has held more than 45,000 pickets nationwide.

“For 20 years we’ve been on the streets of doomed America,” she said. “I’m on the road every week.”

—Staff writer Justin C. Worland can be reached at jworland@college.harvard.edu.