Westboro Baptist Church not a threat to marriage equality

The Westboro Baptist Church has found a new arena to take its message — the federal courts. The church is working to defend Kansas’s same-sex marriage ban. It has asked to be a defendant in the case because it claimed that Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt could not adequately represent the church.

According to the church, since Schmidt is legally unable to use religious arguments because of separation of church and state, he cannot protect the church’s constitutionally protected religious rights.

It is no surprise that the Westboro Baptist Church disapproves of same-sex marriage and even less of a surprise that it would seek to become more vocal about it.

However, while the church appears to be one of the driving forces against marriage equality, it may actually be doing more to help the movement than to hurt it.

First, the church won’t influence this case even if it does somehow manage to appear as the defendant, which is improbable. Reasonable Americans do not approve of the church’s reputation,, and although there are still a lot of people who oppose same-sex marriage, there are few comfortable with spreading the WBC’s idea that God hates people seeking it.

Additionally, even if people are content with the messages the Westboro Baptist Church spreads about same-sex relationships, most are less content with its picketing during funerals — most notably, its protests in Connecticut at the funerals of the lives taken during the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting.

There are even multiple petitions circulating to legally recognize the Westboro Baptist Church as a hate group — including one with almost 400,000 signatures.

Although it may seem that there is a sort of home-field advantage for the Kansas-based church when it comes to the Kansas case, the opposite is more accurate. Most of the petition’s signatures come from people clustered around Kansas.  

So, given that the church not only lacks support nationwide, but also in its home state, it is unlikely that this alleged hate group will affect the Kansas decision. Its words simply do not carry weight and are not consistent with the majority of Kansans. If anything, the church’s statements might actually help Kansas achieve marriage equality.

It is overwhelmingly improbable that the Westboro Baptist Church’s typical homophobic slur-oriented mantra is going to hold up in any court.

Radicals are often detrimental to the legitimacy of movements because they paint a negative and outlandish picture of the moderate majority. The Westboro Baptist Church is known for being radical based on its extended history of radicalism in other areas, such as funeral picketing, and because of the extremity of its typical arguments against same-sex marriage specifically.

For example, rational conversations about upholding traditional family values may cause a court to consider keeping the marriage ban, but having a group known for slurs and pure hatred speak about the issue makes the rest of the opposition, those in favor of the ban, seem considerably less credible.

This is applicable to the Westboro Baptist Church’s attempts to prevent marriage equality in general as well. It does more to make opponents of same-sex marriage look hateful and ridiculous than it does to persuade people that there is actually anything wrong with these marriages.

In other words, the mere association between the Westboro Baptist Church and the desire to prevent same-sex marriage establishes a negative connotation to the entire opposition of the gay rights movement. This single church stigmatizes the opposition to marriage equality and changes the views of those previously associated with anti-gay rights movements.

Vocal and harsh parties such as the Westboro Baptist Church also benefit those working toward marriage equality by keeping the movement alive and interesting. The church gives marriage equality a sense of urgency. Preaching homophobic slurs is a sure way to provoke anger in those on the opposite side of the movement, and anger is incredibly motivating. 

The situation in Kansas is no different. The church’s involvement as a defendant will do nothing but provoke action in the opposition and motivate those who previously associated themselves with challenging same-sex marriage to distance themselves from the issue. Its stances are regarded as bigoted, and they are not remotely a threat to the case in Kansas or to marriage equality and the gay rights movement in general.

Kansas will most likely shoot down the church’s proposal to be involved in this case. But if it does somehow get involved in the case, rest assured, its presence will not prove an obstacle to marriage equality.

Write Adrianne at adg79@pitt.edu