The chanting and singing from the more than 100 supporters for the LGBTQ+ community drowned out the hateful cries of the anti-gay protestors outside of John Burroughs School early Monday morning.
“The other protestors only had about 20 people,” said Alayah Lipnick, a sophomore at Whitfield High School, who stood among the crowd at about 7:45 a.m. on March 12. “I think we really brought it today to let the LGBT community know we support them no matter what.”
Last week, the approximately 600 students at John Burroughs School were informed in a morning assembly that they would be picketed by the Westboro Baptist Church, a hate group based out of Topeka, Kansas. Westboro learned that the school had a gay football star – Jake Bain, a senior who will be playing for Indiana State in the fall – and announced on their website that they would come protest the school.
“I thought it was so amazing to see how supportive not only the Burroughs community was but the entire St. Louis community as a whole,” Bain said. “There were so many people there who I’d never met before that were willing to come out and support me and support my community. It was a really cool thing to see that this hate was able to be turned into so much love and support for the LGBT community.”
While groups such as the LGBTQ+ advocacy organization PrideSTL held a counter protest outside the school, the students themselves decided to celebrate their community inside, instead of giving the hate group the confrontation they wanted, they said. First, members of the community, including Bain’s boyfriend Hunter Sigmund, gave speeches in response to the event.
“This past week certainly has been a whirlwind of emotions,” Sigmund told his fellow students, who were dressed in rainbow attire. “I’ve been struck with horror. I’m been struck with sadness. But now, as I’m standing before you, all I feel is an incredible sense of pride and happiness.”
After hearing the announcement last Tuesday, about 200 students – over one-third of the student body – came together to “passionately discuss” how to respond to the Westboro group, he said. He thanked them for allowing Bain and him to “be themselves.”
“Thank you for not only accepting the LGBT community but for also being the most active and the most compassionate allies I’ve ever met,” Sigmund said. “This celebration today is representative of so many things. It represents how little we tolerate hate. It represents how much we all love and respect and support each other. It represents how far we are willing to go to fight for one another.”
Several Burroughs alumni sent in videos with speeches, including Bain’s oldest brother, Jon Hoeven, who married his husband just last summer. Hoeven, who graduated high school in 2004, came out in college “because he was pretty insecure while he was at Burroughs,” Bain said. His brother has been a source of support and guidance.
“When I was thinking that it was time to come out, he was definitely someone who I was always talking to,” said Bain, who came out at 17. “He was able to talk me through that process and make it really easy for me.”
After the speeches, the students held a pride parade and dance party to show “how Burroughs works to enable every community member… to be whoever they are without leaving any part of their identity at the door,” said Sofia Di Lodovico, a Burroughs senior.
Tai Griffin, a senior who has been one of the leaders of Spectrum – the LGBTQ+ student support and activism group – since the beginning of his junior year, told The American that he’s seen massive changes in the school community during his time at Burroughs.
“We have definitely made some huge steps,” Griffin said. “When I came in as a freshman in 2014, it was pretty different in terms of LGBTQ+ acceptance. Not that it was a hateful environment or anything, but there were just more steps to take.” Then, he said, things began to shift. Students campaigned for the school to provide gender-neutral bathrooms. Several LGBTQ+ students made speeches in front of the school about their identities. Last year, the school even hosted its first pride parade, which was attended by students of all ages dressed up in rainbow colors.
“Every year we took that next step,” Griffin said. “And we’ve gotten to the point where someone like Jake can come out and be met with unrestrained love from his community.”
Bain, who was honored at the St. Louis Blues Pride Night in February, has been specifically targeted by these homophobic messages, but the whole school has felt the hit.
Bain read a speech in front of the school, in which he quoted the Westboro press release that called him several homophobic slurs.
“If one of the most powerful hate groups in the world is going out of their way to come to our school and protest, then I don’t know about you, but to me, that sounds like a change is coming,” Bain said.
“They heard our voices. They heard our demands for equality. They saw the support that this entire Burroughs community, and many more across the world, have given to the LGBTQ+ community, and now they are scared.”
There has never been a human rights movement in this world without some form of resistance, Bain said. He sees this resistance as a sign that Burroughs is on the path towards equality for its LGBTQ+ students.
“When the Little Rock 9 marched into Central High School to be the first children to desegregate America’s schools, they endured hundreds of people shouting horrible, disgusting things at them as they walked into school every day,” Bain said.
Bain’s mother is white, and his father is black. However, his maternal grandparents adopted a black baby daughter in 1971, when his grandpa was coaching at Burroughs.
“They got a lot of mixed messages from people who were from Burroughs and around the St. Louis area because he was a well-known football coach,” Bain said. “My family has always been on the front of what it means to be a diverse family.”
His dad often speaks about the discrimination he’s experienced as a black man growing up.
“It’s just blown me away,” Bain said. “It’s similar to how people are so against being gay.”
On Sunday, a group of Burroughs students met in the school gym to create signs showing their support, stating, “God loves everybody,” and “love is love.” Students from Thomas Jefferson School, Ladue Horton Watkins High School and Westminster Christian Academy joined the Burroughs students in making signs. Bain’s family also came to show their support – including his grandparents.
One of the speeches on Monday that stuck out in Bain’s mind was a poem read by freshman Leyla Fern King.
“It was one of the most beautiful poems I’ve ever heard,” Bain said. “She said even if you can’t come out, just the fact that you’re breathing in the world where there’s so much hate towards you means that you are so strong and that you’re enough. That idea that you are enough and you’re perfect how you are, it was incredible to hear.”
