Tara Cavanaugh
A teenager in East Lansing was awarded a resolution by the East Lansing City Council on Dec. 7 for helping organize a peaceful protest against the Westboro Baptist Church's protest outside his high school.
WBC, infamous for its protests of soldiers' funerals, staged a protest outside East Lansing High School on Nov. 18. WBC showed up at the high school because some students had written a letter of protest after Margie Phelps, daughter of WBC's Reverend Fred Phelps, was invited to a demonstration at the Michigan State University College of Law this fall.
Ian Hoopingarner, a junior, worked with five local organizations to raise more than $1200 and gather hundreds of volunteers in peaceful protest against the WBC.
Council member Nathan Triplett read the resolution, which thanked Hoopingarner for his "significant contribution to planning a successful celebration of diversity that eclipsed the negative message of the WBC."
"This could have been a real black eye for our community," Triplett said, "and instead folks like Ian came together and turned it into something I think we can all be proud of."
Hoopingarner told the Lansing Online News that money raised will fund donations "made in WBC's name" toward the Alliance of Queer and Ally Students at MSU, the ELHS Gay Straight Alliance, the Lansing Area AIDS Network, Equality Michigan, AIDS Research Alliance and Southern Poverty Law Center.
Teen out-protests Westboro Baptist Church
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