Parasol Patrol Shuts Down Westboro Baptist’s Nex Benedict Protest
Nex Benedict, a nonbinary 16-year-old who died the day after an altercation in the school’s bathroom.But a pro-LGBTQ alliance of hundreds of people showed up to counter-protest, outnumbering the church members and expressing support for the students at Owasso High School in Owasso, Oklahoma. The Topeka, Kansas-based Westboro, which has been designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, announced earlier this week that it intended to hold two “public preaching” events in Owasso on Wednesday, March 6 — one outside the school board headquarters, and the other outside Owasso High.According to a release from the group that misgenders Benedict, Westboro intended to protest the school due to its negligence in dealing with the 16-year-old, allowing her to identify as nonbinary without forcing her to accept her assigned sex at birth.The release slams Benedict’s family for having failed in raising them, and the staffers at Owasso High School, the local school board, and the city, saying that adults surrounding Benedict failed to intervene, and implying that God punished the lack of intervention with Benedict’s death.