In 2017 Danica Roem, the nation’s first out transgender woman was elected to serve on Virginia’s House of Delegates. When Danica Roem was elected many organizations like Westboro Baptists Church were not too happy with her position on the State legislature. On March 11th at 9 am the organization, Westboro Baptist Church is heading to the Virginia State Capitol in order to protest Danica Roem’s rightful seat on Virginia’s state legislature.
Randy Blythe, the singer of the metal band Lamb of God recently announced that he is organizing “counter-party” against the organization, Westboro Baptist Church. On March 8th, Blythe shared his plans on Instagram for a counter-party rather than a counter-protest. Blythe states, “Not a counter-protest because it would entail arguing with these idiots (which is useless)”. His plan is to drown them out with Kazoos and distract them with a costume contest. He is offering an incentive of $100 to the person with the best costume and is making the morning a more peaceful resistance. The metal singer makes it clear that he is not looking for conflict with Westboro Baptist Church, but instead, his goals are to protect his friend and to stand up for the trans community. In the post, Blythe highlights the many things Westboro has protested in the past such as, “military funerals, Kansas City Chiefs football games, and the funerals of people killed by natural disasters”. Loudwire featured his Instagram announcement of the counter-party and states that the Westboro Baptist Church protests usually do not work in their favor, stating “Don’t mess with rock and metal”.
Blythe grew up in Franklin, Virginia and he makes it clear that he will not stand by an attack on his own city. Randy and Danica are close friends, making the protest an even more personal attack. Blythe makes it clear that Roem is his friend in his Instagram post, “Why? They are protesting my friend, a fairly elected member of the Virginia House of Delegates”. Danica Roem is also a fan of heavy metal and used to be the singer of the metal band, Cab Ride Home. The “counter-party” will be held at 9 am on Monday, March,11th at the Virginia State Capitol. Randy Blythe encourages people to, “put on your corpsepaint, your rainbow wig, your inflatable sumo wrestler costume. Fly your freak flag high!.”
Photo Credit: Owen Ela
UPDATE (3/12):
Randy Blythe’s counter-party flooded the Virginia State Capitol with wild dancing and loud kazoos, making Westboro Baptist Church leave early from their protest. Virginians took the streets of Richmond to protect Danica Roem’s rightful seat on the House of Delegates. Blythe’s counter-party drowned out Westboro Baptist Church and made a clear statement to the organization.
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