Tuesday October 5, 2010 year: 130 No. 129 the student voice of
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TYLER JOSWICK / Lantern asst. photo editor
The Westboro Baptist Church protests at 11th Avenue and High Street on Monday while police keep a crowd at bay on the south side of Ohio State’s campus.
Students counter, mock anti-gay rally lauren hallow Senior Lantern reporter hallow.1@osu.edu Members of the Kansas-based Westboro Baptist Church made a dramatic appearance at OSU Monday morning on their way to the U.S. Supreme Court. To counter the brief rally by members of Westboro, known for its anti-gay and anti-America sentiments, nearly 100 students gathered on the corner of 11th Avenue and High Street. Armed with free cookies, rainbow umbrellas and signs proclaiming “Love not Hate” and “God Loves All People,” the counter-protesters outnumbered the six adults and two children who represented the Kansas-based church. Westboro, an independent Baptist church known for protesting at funerals of U.S. soldiers and gay people, was slated to appear in front of the Ohio Union. But the group decided to stage its rally in front of the Moritz Law School instead.
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“Our students here at Ohio State know that this is a very inclusive campus that rejects any form of prejudice, exclusion or disrespect.” Jim Lynch Ohio State spokesman
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Police denied The Lantern’s attempts to speak to the protesters about why they chose to rally at OSU, but a statement on the group’s website says OSU students “spend more time pursuing their drunken sins than their academic studies” and that OSU professors teach “the ubiquitous lie that ‘it’s OK to be gay.’”
The church members displayed colorfully decorated signs while dancing and singing along to what sounded like popular songs, such as the Gorillaz’s “Feel Good Inc.” and Queen’s “Fat Bottomed Girls.” Closer inspection of the signs gave a clearer indication of their messages: “Pray for More Dead Soldiers.” “Antichrist — Obama.” “Fags Doom Nations.” And the song lyrics were changed from Freddie Mercury’s original version of the popular song by Queen to: “Fat-bottomed whore will, by our mighty Lord, go down.” Mercury was gay and died in 1991 of complications from AIDS. Most of the counter-protesters, separated from the Westboro group by a line of Columbus and OSU police officers, didn’t seem fazed by the church group and said they came to mock the church’s
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OSU spent months preparing for protest Justin conle y Lantern reporter conley.325@osu.edu Although Monday’s Westboro Baptist Church protest lasted less than 30 minutes, Ohio State officials and student groups began preparing for the protesters months before their arrival. “We have long known about this visit from Westboro Baptist and we are familiar with their efforts across the country,” said OSU spokesman Jim Lynch. He said he knew about the protest for three months. Representatives from OSU Public Safety, the Ohio Union, the Multicultural Center and other organizations attended meetings during the summer to prepare for the protest. “We all came together to talk about what the plan
of action was,” said Angie Wellman, intercultural specialist at the Multicultural Center in the Ohio Union. The Multicultural Center sponsored the Ally T-shirt Campaign, which offered students free T-shirts that read “Ally” on the front and listed cultural groups, many of which are targets of the Westboro Baptist Church, on the back. The Multicultural Center also planned OUT on the Plaza, a fair to inform students about what resources are available to the gay community on campus. “It’s about trying to build allies and educate folks that don’t know much about the communities that the Westboro Baptist Church is talking about,” Wellman said. When coordinators of the Westboro LoveBomb Party to Benefit the Columbus AIDS Task Force created a Facebook event in August, 1,800 people said they would attend.
“It blew up overnight,” said Arlene Miles, 32, one of the coordinators. We wanted “to get people together and show them that in our city, we don’t tolerate this kind of hate. Ultimately, it’s about living as a community.” About 500 people attended, and the LoveBomb Party raised about $100, which will be donated to the Columbus AIDS Task Force in the name of Westboro Baptist Church pastor Fred Phelps, Wellman said. Public safety was OSU Police Chief Paul Denton’s primary goal. About 15 officers from the OSU Police Department surrounded the Westboro Baptist Church members, separating them from the crowd. “We are going to protect constitutional rights,” Denton said. “Our students … know that we have an inclusive campus, that we reject any kind of prejudice and exclusion or disrespect.”
Union: OSU’s Sodexo workers likely to strike dylan tussel Lantern reporter tussel.2@osu.edu One Sodexo Inc. employee who works at Ohio State cleaning Ohio Stadium and stocking the concession stands says she cannot afford to eat every day on her $9.30-per-hour salary. Sandy Dailey, 52, has worked for Sodexo for 10 years. She said she received her first review and raise in November, increasing her salary by $1 per hour. “I can’t live on that salary,” Dailey said. “Part of the time, I can’t afford to eat.” Sodexo is a France-based corporation that subcontracts its workers to facilities, including universities, hospitals and athletic stadiums, to run concession stands. Sodexo employees at several institutions, including OSU, recently voted to authorize strikes because of what they say is the corporation’s poor treatment of its workers and restrictions on their ability to unionize, said Laurie Couch, spokeswoman for Service Employees International Union. “The workers are pretty fired up,” Couch said. “They’ve been trying to organize a union for a couple of months now, and management has responded by punishing them and threatening them.”
Couch said the Sodexo workers at OSU will likely strike, though the union has not set a date. Alfred King, director of public relations for Sodexo USA, said Sodexo pays its employees well and respects their right to collectively bargain. “Sodexo provides Sandy Dailey competitive wages, and our benefits eligibility for front line employees is the most liberal in our industry,” King said in an e-mail. “Sodexo respects the rights of our employees to join a union or not, as they choose.” King added that 40 of Sodexo’s employees at OSU have worked there for at least five years, “which would indicate satisfaction with their job and treatment.” But Dailey is not satisfied. She said her wages aren’t high enough for her to afford health insurance or pay her medical bills. “I don’t have medical or nothin’, and I got blood pressure medicine that I can’t afford,” she said. “I’m still gettin’ billed for my treatment, and I don’t get my medicine because I can’t afford it. I was havin’ chest pains this morning.”
Dailey said she doesn’t know how much she owes because she usually can’t bring herself to open her bills. “I know I owe thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars to OSU for the doctor bill,” she said. Dailey said Sodexo wages are so low that some of its employees qualify for welfare. She wants to be able to form a union with her co-workers to help increase their pay, she said, but Sodexo management has responded with intimidation. “They tried to give us that $1 raise,” she said, referring to the raise she received in November, “and said if they gave us that $1 raise, they didn’t want us to get a union.” Dailey cares for her boyfriend, who has multiple sclerosis, but she said when she requested time off from work to care for him, she met resistance from management. “I requested Sunday off because my boyfriend has MS and I have to take care of him,” she said. “They got mad at me.” Many Sodexo employees have recently shown that they are willing to follow through with the strikes they voted to approve, said Terasia Bradford, treasurer of OSU United Students Against
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