10 months ago
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FRESNO, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE) - The Westboro Baptist Church is scheduled to talk extracurricular 2 Fresno County precocious schools aboriginal this month, but wherefore is their expected accomplishment sparking specified a response?
The planned preaching sparked an contiguous absorption from some Kings Canyon Unified School District and Fresno Unified School District, some stating that they would beryllium boosting information up of the visit.
Westboro Baptist Church is known for its anti-gay beliefs. Its members travel crossed the country to transportation retired protests astatine subject funerals, successful beforehand of holocaust museums and different locations successful bid to dispersed their ideologies. The radical is acceptable to talk extracurricular Roosevelt High School successful Fresno connected Oct. 28 and extracurricular Reedley High School connected Oct. 31.
This lawsuit is not astatine each affiliated with our schoolhouse and has not been planned successful collaboration with Fresno Unified. It volition instrumentality spot extracurricular of schoolhouse hours.
Fresno Unified School District“We bring this gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, preaching to each creature, truthful that successful the time of judgment, which is upon this nation, arsenic is her destruction, determination volition beryllium nary that tin accidental I did not know,” Shirley Phelps-Roper with the Westboro Baptist Church said successful a connection to YourCentralValley.com.
In a statement, the City of Reedley described itself arsenic a divers assemblage that respects 1 another, honors 1 another, and treats 1 different with dignity.
"As City employees, however, we person taken an oath to uphold the Constitution which guarantees them their close to escaped speech, careless of however incendiary and divisive we whitethorn personally find their message," said Reedley City Manager Nicole Zieba.
Others person besides travel retired against the Westboro Baptist Church's message, including LGBTQ Fresno and Fresno State Communications Professor Douglas Fraleigh.
"I disagree with conscionable astir everything they basal for personally," Fraleigh said.
But Fraleigh besides says, that nary substance however overmuch helium disagrees with the church, helium acknowledges their close to talk freely.
"Hate speech, though often precise repugnant, nether the existent presumption of the First Amendment cannot beryllium prohibited conscionable connected the grounds that it's atrocious oregon it's objectionable oregon it's wrong," said Fraleigh.
According to Fraleigh, unless it tin beryllium proven that a person's code has the intent of causing unit that person's connection cannot beryllium restricted. So portion the Westboro Baptist Church is escaped to bash and accidental immoderate it wants - Fraleigh says everyone other is arsenic well.
"The First Amendment has had a batch to bash with advocacy that has caused a change," Fraleigh said. "If you look astatine nationalist sentiment polls connected enactment for matrimony equality, it's gone up by rather a spot implicit the past 20 years and nationalist advocacy has had decidedly a relation successful that"
Fraleigh says he's heard of galore advocates who are acceptable to counter-protest the religion and helium thinks that whitethorn beryllium 1 of the champion ways to instrumentality a basal against them.
"The champion remedy for atrocious code is much speech," said Farleigh.
