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<< Previous   of   Next >> Michael O'Leary / The Herald  (click to enlarge) Aaron Bach of Everett participates in a protest against the Watchmen on the Walls gathering Saturday at the Lynnwood Convention Center in Lynnwood.   ADVERTISEMENT   CONTACT THE HERALD Robert Frank, City Editor frank@heraldnet.com   Published: Sunday, October 21, 2007 About 120 people protest religious group's meeting in Lynnwood By Jackson Holtz Herald Writer LYNNWOOD -- 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. "We have a responsibility as a community to stand up for the rights and health and happiness of every person." 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. "If you actually look at what they're doing, it's exactly what they accuse of us of doing," he said Saturday. "If my disapproval, even my strong disapproval, is characterized as hate, then their strong disapproval of my beliefs, my Christianity, is hate, too." Protest organizer Cindy Worthen of Everett disagreed. "Hate is oppressing others because of their gender or their race or sexual orientation," she said. On Friday, Watchmen officials said homosexuality is "morally, physically, psychologically and socially wrong, unnatural and harmful." Lee Metzger, 73, of Lynnwood, agrees homosexuality is a sin. The protesters were the ones who were closed-minded, she said. "All they're emphasizing is 'love gays,'" she said. "We love the people, we don't love the behavior." 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. "They have a right to preach what they think. I disagree so wholeheartedly with it that I wanted to come to show my disagreement, and that's my right," he said. "I'm not staying home anymore. I've been in the closet almost all my life. That's where they want to keep me. No thanks." Protesters taunted Kirkland Pastor Ken Hutcherson, known statewide for opposing same-sex marriage, when he arrived Saturday morning. He took the heckling in stride. "They stand for what they believe in the same way I stand for what I believe in," Hutcherson said. "God has given us America. America is not perfect, it's just the best."

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