Showing Up Against Hate is Important

Every Friday for the last several Friday's, the Wall of Love has formed in Ybor City. A concept of Out and Loud Tampa, an intersectional LGBTQ activist group, the Out and Loud team gather protesters en masse to stand against the famous hate preachers of Ybor city.

Larry Keffer is a street preacher and founder of the Biblical Research Center. He spends his evenings, along with a group of other vested preachers, yelling into the bullhorns preaching the supposed word of God to the public.

I've seen them there for years, usually ignored them. Most people ignore them in fact. They continue walking along and act as though they're not here. Occasionally, I would see people engage them, whether it is in a heated rage or an attempt to have a civil conversation.

Aaron Munoz and team at Out and Loud finally decided that ignoring was not enough. With 2016 the deadliest year for trans women, but especially trans women of color, and now with the arrival of a Trump administration, it is no longer the time to be quiet.

Some people might view the work of Out and Loud and similar protesters as counterproductive or disruptive. Some people will call them whiners with no purpose or vision or even bullies.

Often times, the free speech defenders will chime in how we are disrupting another group's free speech. Listen when I tell you...free speech only protects you from government persecution, not the persecution of the public. Unless the police arrest Larry and his crew for their speech, their free speech has not been violated.

But why is the work Out and Loud doing so important right now? I mean, with the Republican Congress, isn't there more important fish to fry?

Let me explain it this way. One of the most powerful ways for laws to be effective is not through their existence on paper but rather the cultural norms surrounding them. Jim Crow laws were effective because they went mostly unchallenged for a long time, people just culturally accepted them. What, I think, Out and Loud is doing is taking a stand culturally, regardless of the face of law. Even if the most oppressive, backwards anti-LGBTQ laws come into force, they are only as good as the community's perception of them.

For example, currently in many localities, it is perfectly legal to turn away gay and trans people for goods and services. However, after seeing how successfully Out and Loud has rallied a community, do you think a business would make the unwise decision to use such leeway in the law?

Probably not. Because we will tear it up!

Aside from that though, the most important aspect of this is our protection to the next generation of LGBTQ. They are the most vulnerable and will take the largest backlash from this administration. It is our work, our suffering, and the suffering of the LGBTQ elders before us that allowed the way for the gay youth to be more openly accepted and less stigmatized. Now all of that work is threatened and at-risk.

I remember being a young gay coming out to Ybor to party and having those hateful signs in my face with an angry man of God yelling his rhetoric. I remember that.

We are doing a huge service to the youth of today to let them know we are not going to stand by and watch them get hurt. We are a huge community, yes full of shade, full of internalized oppression and full of problematic behavior, but nonetheless a huge community. We will love and protect one another. We will take the streets to make sure our young gay and trans future feel protected and secure.

It's just what we are going to do.

I don't expect those outside of the community to get it--and at this point, I really don't care,

The work we are doing is amazing and crucial in these trying times and we will continue to be heard.

Much Love,
ArchAngel O:)