'Angels' Protect Orlando Funeral From Anti-Gay Protesters

Forum 7 years ago

'Angels' Protect Orlando Funeral From Anti-Gay Protesters

People in Orlando have dressed as guardian angels to protect the funeral of one of the Orlando shooting victims from homophobic protesters. A small number of Westboro Baptist Church followers, attended Saturday's service for Christopher Leinonen.

The anti-gay organisation only has about 40 members but is well known for its hate speeches and funeral protests.

The handful of demonstrators was blocked from view by around 200 counter-protesters.

"I think our presence here is just to show support for the families of the victims and we want to make sure that we're an ally," said one supporter, Suzanne Draper.

Another counter-demonstrator, Wesley Wizner, came to stand outside the funeral with a huge rainbow screen.

"We originally made it as large as possible because we didn't know the location, we wanted to make sure we could block the [Westboro Baptist Church] signs," he explained.

"We just intended to make sure we were showing as much support as possible and they [anti-gay protesters] were running into as large of an opposition as we could create," he said.