An estimated 100 classmates in Missouri have rallied around an openly gay high school football player after he was targeted by the anti-gay Westboro Baptist Church.
The students used the hashtag #StandWithJake to share their messages of support for Jake Bain, who is a senior at John Burroughs School.
Announcing plans to picket Bain's school, the Church labeled the football star a “smirking, proud f*g child” in a press release.
“This beast is vaunted as the best thing that has happened to football since Knute Rockne,” the press release read. “In fact, in the wake of this football playing f*g phenomenon, Knute is just a proverbial water boy.”
Bain likely grabbed the WBC's attention when he last year after coming out as gay in a speech delivered to classmates during school assembly. He has since received a football scholarship for Indiana State University, where he will be attending later this year.
"This is so much bigger than just me," Bain said in an .
He continued: "There's just so many people out there that are going through the same things that I'm going through. So I just hope that a light is kinda shed on the entire community, especially the youth."
"I think they targeted me because they saw that a gay athlete was in the news for the past couple of weeks," Bain said of the press release. "Honestly, I think they got a little scared that people are starting to realise that it doesn't really matter if you're gay, and that everybody should be treated equally."
He continued: "I think they kinda realise that the tides are changing, and as this generation and the next generations to come continue to grow and learn, I think more and more people are becoming accepting, and so I think that goes against everything that they stand for."
The school's headmaster, Andy Abbott, sent a letter to parents, explaining his support for the planned counter-protest.
“In our society, there is always room for respectful differences of opinion. But WBC is nothing more than a hate group,” he wrote in the letter. “It maintains that God is punishing America because of its tolerance of the LGBTQ+ community... their modus operandi is to carry inflammatory signs to incite reactions from those they picket.”
He concluded: “What we will remember is that our students responded with unity and care and courage."
