Students Protect LGBTQ Students from anti-LGBTQ protesters

PROVO, UT — (09-06-22) — Brigham Young students dressed in angelic costumes formed a barrier between LGBTQ students attending their pride night against anti-LGBTQ protesters yelling slurs at them.

Anti-LGBTQ protesters hurled slurs at the “Back to School Pride Night” on Saturday night but thanks to the Brigham students forming a barricade to protect them, the Raynbow Collective, a nonprofit organization that supports Brigham Young University LGBTQ students, were able to have a successful event for the LGBTQ students at a park ahead of the school year.

The annual event attracted anti-LGBT protesters who yelled out “pedophile” and “groomer” at LGBTQ students. The parroting of right wing media and conservative politicians keyword talking points shows where their brainwashed anger originated from.

The Brigham students brought their homemade garb that consisted of white sheets fitted over PVC pipes. They were designed to resemble angel wings. When the angels stood between the protesters and the LGBT students, their wings — measuring up to about three feet above their shoulders — blocked the signs and posters from the anti-LGBT group.

“I’m doing this because I want our LGBTQ community to feel like they can be themselves and know we have their backs,” Brigham Young student Sabrina Wong.

Ahead of pride night, police told the Raynbow Collective organizers that they had intelligence that a large crowd of protesters had planned to attend the pride event to disrupt it.

With the tip from police, Maddison Tenney, Raynbow Collective founder and Brigham Young senior, came up with the brilliant idea to create angel costumes to block the protesters and protect the event participants.

The costumes and practice date back to 1999, when a group of people donned angel apparel to honor the brutal murder of Matthew Shepard, a gay University of Wyoming student who had been beaten and tortured by two men.

Shepard died six days after the attack. Ever since then, people in angel costumes have continued to block anti-LGBTQ protesters at LGBTQ events, parades and rallies.

At Saturday’s event, students joined the people in angel costumes to fill in any gaps that exposed anti-LGBTQ protesters.

“I know that there are more standing with us than those against us,” said Tenney during Pride Night.

With the GOP’s continued war against the LGBTQ community, it is wonderful to see that they continue to be out numbered by LGBTQ students heterosexual pears. Hopefully one day conservatives will learn that this is not their 1950s era.