About 100 peaceful protestors gathered outside a campaign event for the anti-LGBT activist Scott Lively in Athol, Massachusetts last week.
According to the Athol Daily News:
The vigil began in front of the North Quabbin Community Coalition, but later participants peacefully walked down the road in front of the American Legion where a group was hosting a dinner to introduce Lively.
After standing quietly for 10 to 15 minutes, Lively came out and began speaking to groups of individuals as he went down the line. He tried to tell people that they were misunderstanding him — that he did not hate anyone — that he was only against gay marriage.
A number of people spoke to Lively, disputing his ideas, according to Mitchell Grosky, who was in attendance and took photographs of the vigil. Those who attended said they felt that hatred of any group because of their sexual preference, or their race, or their color, or their religion, or their ethnicity, or their country of origin is wrong, reprehensible and is not in any way part of what people stand for in the North Quabbin area.
“To see someone like Lively welcomed into our town by a few people made me upset,” said [the vigil’s organizer state rep. Suzanne] Whipps. “There is nothing our group could have said or done to change (his) opinion on any subject – it was more of a showing for people in this community to know they have friends, they have allies and they have supporters. There is a strong group of people here who are going to stand up to make sure our community is safe for everyone.” …
When Lively kept saying that he did not hate anyone, Grosky interjected that even if peaceful protestors took him at his word that he does not hate gays, lesbians and other members of the LGBTQ community, it is still true that his writings and speeches provide a forum for people who do hate gays – and those prejudiced people feed off his words.
Grosky said his point was that when people like Lively rail against gay marriage, against rights for gay men and women, then those who hate are provided a platform to articulate that hate, spread their hate, infecting others with the same hatred for people who are different than they are. …
“We need to treat people the way we would like to be treated,” said Grosky. “Just what our moms and dads always told us: be kind to others, be accepting of others, try to make the world a little better, a little kinder, a little gentler.
“That’s what the people at the vigil were saying. There is no room for hatred in the North Quabbin. We will support our neighbors and we will speak out against intolerance and prejudice, against bigotry and discrimination, wherever and whenever we find it. We will all do our part to leave the world – or at least our small part of it – a little better than we found it,” said Grosky.
Whipps said she was grateful to be a part of the group and it “filled” her heart to see the community show up for the event. “We set the tone and it wasn’t combative or confrontational, it was just to show support. If a young person in town is looking and seeing that Lively was being hosted for an event in town, it might give them some discomfort. But for them to see the number of people who came out to support their community, I think that was an important message,” she said.
