On Oct. 28, over 100 pro-LGBTQ+ counter protestors met outside Roosevelt High School in response to a planned Westboro Baptist Church (WBC) demonstration in Fresno.

Students, faculty and community members painted all four corners of the intersection on Cedar and Tulare avenues in rainbow umbrellas.

Three WBC members showed up to school. One unaffiliated individual who held a sign filled with anti-LGBTQ+ content briefly appeared.

“Fresno turned out beautifully,” Jennifer Cruz, an LGBTQ+ community advocate, said. “To see this kind of response in just 10 days, it warms my heart.”

The counter protest was vibrant with people dancing to Taylor Swift and Chappell Roan as passing cars honked with support.

Community members came together to deliver a strong message to the WBC. Messages on banners, signs and posters included “You Are Not Alone,” and “LGBTQ Students Belong.”

But according to Cruz, the message of the counter-protest was to the youth of Fresno.

“We love you. We’re here for you,” Cruz said.

John Fausone, a math teacher at Roosevelt, showed up in support of his students and to send a message to the members of WBC that they are not welcomed in Fresno or anywhere.

“They can go back to Kansas,” Fausone said. “Get a hobby, get a life.”

Peter Robinson, a former student at Roosevelt, is a member of the LGBTQ+ community and showed up to tell the WBC members that both him and his community are always going to be here.

“We exist and we will always exist…we will exist in your face whether you like it or not,” Robinson said.

When the WBC members showed up with signs containing homophobic slurs and hate speech, they were met with the counter protesters and their rainbow umbrellas.

Wherever they were, in a median on a sidewalk or going back to their car, rainbow umbrellas blocked their signs from oncoming traffic and people passing by as some counter protesters shouted, “My creator loves me for who I am,” and “I will not repent.”

WBC member, Shirley Phelps-Roper, said the reason why she and her family wanted to come to Fresno was because they hadn’t been here before.

“This people has fully rejected God and his commandments and his standards…this country’s destruction is upon them,” Phelps-Roper said. “Do you see it? Do you see it in your weather, in your fires, in your shooters? It’s been a long time coming.”

She also said that high schools like Roosevelt were representations of the broader education system that teaches children to “reject God.”

In a press release the WBC attacked the PRISM Club, a GSA association, and the Set Apart: Christian Club.

Cruz said it’s possible that the WBC intentionally uses its inflammatory rhetoric to cause anger and sue people for theoretically infringing upon their rights.

The WBC wasn’t the only church group out there protesting.

Among the counter protesters were other local religious leaders showing their support in denying the WBC.

“God is love,” the Rev. Tim Kutzmark, the minister at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Fresno, said. “God does not hate.”

According to Kutzmark, he believes that their disdain has accumulated to spread misinformation.

“Their hate and misinformation piled up on their humanity and covered it up so they are not able to access the love that’s inside them that they should be sharing with other people,” Kutzmark said. “I believe every person deserves to be treated with love; every person has inherent worthiness and dignity…they can put whatever they want on their website it doesn’t make it true.”

John Coffee, a Vietnam War veteran drove from Porterville alongside his husband to attend the counter protest. He said they were the first male couple to become married in Tulare County.

Coffee came to also show support for the community and to give a message to WBC that “love wins, hate dies.”

WBC members had left in their car and were escorted by police while the counter-protest continued for another 30 minutes.

The WBC will hold a demonstration at Reedley High School at 7:30 a.m. on Oct. 31.