Wednesday was a difficult day for The American Independent News Network, which is the larger entity that operates The Iowa Independent. Our chief executive and founder announced two of our sister sites would close and their content would be moved to The American Independent.
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DES MOINES — When a handful of members of Fred Phelps’ Westboro Baptist Church showed up to spread their message of intolerance at Drake University on Saturday, they were instead drowned out by hundreds of counter protesters who gathered to declare “There’s no hate in Iowa.”
The church — best known for picketing military funerals with signs proclaiming the soldiers’ deaths to be God’s punishment for the country’s tolerance of gays — was on campus to protest a symposium on same-sex marriage being hosted by the university’s law school.
In addition to countering Westboro’s message, the counter protesters also managed to raise more than $1,000 selling T-shirts and taking donations, money they will give to One Iowa, the state’s largest LGBT-right groups, an organization that deals with HIV/AIDS, and to the family of a Marine killed in Iraq who sued Phelp’s church for picketing the funeral and was ordered to pay the protesters’ court costs.
Below are photos from the showdown between Westboro and counter protesters (all photos by Lynda Waddington/Iowa Independent).
Counter protesters gather on Drake's campus in Des Moines.
A handful of members of the Westboro Baptist Church gather across the street from Drake University.
Even Drake's mascot was on hand to counter the message of Westboro Baptist Church.
Liberal radio host and former state Rep. Ed Fallon interviews a member of Westboro Baptist Church.
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