Hundreds March For Gay Rights
By Satenik Karpetyan — 10/02/10
It is the opening weekend of the movie “The Social Network” which is about the creation of Facebook, and nothing shows the power of social networking more than today’s rally on the Boston Common.
Hundreds gathered to rally for tolerance of the GLBTQ community. The rally was created through Facebook in response to a scheduled Westboro Baptist Church protest of the Tectonic Theater Project’s production of the “The Laramie Project” at the Cutler Majestic Theater.
Even though no one showed up at the planned Westboro Baptist Church demonstration, the counter protest went on as planned.
A peaceful march went down Boylston Street, and around the block towards the Cutler Majestic. The demonstrators chanted “Love is Louder.” Many carried signs advocating gay rights, tolerance and peace.
Claire Kaiser created the event through Facebook and said, “When I made the group I knew I was supposed to work today, but I knew people were going to respond to this. I just had to share how it had to be done in a peaceful and positive way. I would say we accomplished that here today and I’m so proud of everyone.”
“I think it’s important to support the gay community,” said Teodora Kaltcheva. “The Westboro Church actually showed up at my high school in Cambridge and they brought little kids holding signs that said “God hates fags” and we did the same type of thing there. This was just so energetic and so empowering. A lot of people on the street were into it and giving us a lot of energy which I didn’t expect.”
At the end of the march, speakers explained to the crowd how the new “It Gets Better” campaign is trying to prevent gay teen suicide. Statistics show that more gay than straight teens commit suicide.