Source: Everett Herald
LYNNWOOD, Wash. -- About 120 protesters greeted an anti-gay religious group with signs, chants, cheers and jeers Saturday morning outside the Lynnwood Convention Center.
The colorfully dressed group made it clear that the message from the Watchmen on the Walls, monitored by national civil rights organizations as a potential hate group, was not welcome.
Officials with Watchmen, meeting all weekend in Lynnwood, said the group is not a hate group and is being mischaracterized by the media. They said they are Christian and conservative and promote the natural family, traditional marriage and recovery for homosexuals who want it.
On Saturday, the people standing in the rain outside the convention center said the Watchmen's messages are dangerous and need to be balanced with love and acceptance.
"This today is about protecting the worth and dignity and rights of the fellow citizens of our county," said Pastor Bruce Davis of Marysville's Evergreen Unitarian Universalist Fellowship.
Watchmen on the Walls, made up primarily of Russian-speaking immigrants, has been identified by the Southern Poverty Law Center, based in Montgomery, Ala., as "an international extremist anti-gay movement" whose rhetoric can lead to violence.
All weekend Lynnwood police have had extra officers on duty as a precaution.
By Saturday, there had been no problems or arrests, Lynnwood police Deputy Chief Paul Watkins said.
The Watchmen said no one in their association has committed violence.
"I'm really tired of this constant accusation of hate," Watchmen co-founder Scott Lively said. "There are some people who hate homosexuals, but I'm not one of them."
Lively said Saturday was the first time the Watchmen have been met with protests. About 40 people attended Saturday morning's event, and about 125 attended an evening prayer meeting. The group had planned for as many as 700.
Lively said the people marching on the sidewalk were being intolerant of the group's views that homosexuality is a sin and corrupts society.
Members of the Watchmen were speaking forcefully about their beliefs, which isn't hateful, she said.
"If they're preaching the Bible, then I'm for it," she said. "If it's their opinion, then phooey on it. But if it's God's word, I'm for it."
Outside in pouring rain and chilly fall temperatures, Barbara Troha, 66, of Stanwood was carrying a sign that said, "I'm straight but I don't hate."
"I'm sick and tired of people who think they have the right to tell other people how to live," she said.
Snohomish County Gay Men's Task Force member John Marsh, 62, of Snohomish translated his placard into Russian for the Watchmen.
"Hate is not a family value," it read.
The county welcomes diversity, he said.