Pine-Richland Parents Stand Up To Westboro Baptist Protesters

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PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - PITTSBURGH (KDKA) – Members of the Westboro Baptist Church held more protests in the Pittsburgh area Friday morning.

Their first stop was Pine-Richland High School, but the counter-protest was much larger and louder.

When parents and community members found out about the Westboro Baptist Church's plans to join outside of Pine-Richland High School, there was confusion.

"I was shocked and I thought let me spur this into action," Ellen Bosman said.

Bosman and Allison Duncan, who has two boys at the school, decided to get people together to show that Westboro's message isn't theirs.

"My kids know that I am out standing up for people from all walks of life and we try to teach our kids to look out for everyone," Duncan said.

"Wanted to make sure that the students knew that that they're welcome here and they're accepted," Mitchell Hortert said.

"These children think it's OK to be gay, they think it's OK be a tranny," one Westboro member said.

Westboro Baptist Church is seen as a hate group with an anti-gay message.

"That seems to be their agenda. They seem to always be attacking certain people or groups," Phil Damato said.

Pine-Richland, attracted national attention regarding transgender students' use of high school bathrooms.

Members of the church say they're not a hate group and the protest, which lasted less than 30 minutes, was peaceful.

Members from Westboro Baptist Church then went to the Wyndham hotel Downtown to protest the journalism conference held there today.

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