Students on Waverly Avenue protest hate speech against gays

Nick Haas and members of Pride Union waited on the steps at the corner of Waverly Avenue and University Place Friday for Jim Deferio, who often stands there holding signs that protest homosexuality. But Deferio never showed up.

"He was here yesterday, and so yesterday when he told us he'd be back again today, we decided that we would organize a counter protest," said Haas, outreach coordinator for Pride Union and a sophomore forestry engineering major at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry.


From 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., about 20 students stood on the corner holding up signs promoting love and acceptance of the LGBT community despite Deferio not being there as he said he would at his anti-gay protest Thursday. Some students said they were disappointed Deferio didn't provide them with a view to counter, but the group felt its message was something that needed to be promoted.


"I think it's always easier to protest when you have someone to counter protest, but it's important what we're trying to do whether or not he is here,"said Rae Rozman, Pride Union's historian and a junior psychology major.


Deferio often stands on the same corner and has held up signs that discriminate against other groups such as Muslims, Haas said.

"The response from the SU community, and not just the queer community, is that there is another message out there," said John Crandall, the president of Pride Union. "You can be a part of our community. You are beautiful. There is nothing about who you are that's sinful."


The protestors responded with cheers when cars and even Syracuse University Ambulances honked their horns in support. Some of the students took turns wearing a rainbow flag cape as they held their signs. One of the signs read "Silence = death." Others said "Equality is a right under law" and "Homosexuality is fierce."


The intersection is public property, so Deferio has a right to be there, Haas said. But the group was protesting not against Deferio's right to free speech, but rather to the message he promotes, Haas said.


"Even though this is a public place and he technically has the right to free speech - and I support free speech - people have to walk through here to get to the health center, people have to walk through here to get to the School of Education, to Marshall Street, to Whitman," he said. "He's spreading horrible messages, and people don't like it. They're uncomfortable with it. They're upset about it."


But Jeff Cappella, a graduate student, said he didn't agree with the logic behind the group's protest. He said he felt the group was attempting to limit Deferio's free speech by championing its own.


"You cannot sit there and criticize someone exercising their freedom of speech, and then when somebody points out the logical inconsistencies regarding the motivation why you're involved in this behavior say, 'Well, that's my freedom of speech,'" Cappella said.


But Crandall, agreeing with Haas, said even if Deferio had shown up, the counter protest was not an attempt to limit his freedom of speech.


"We don't want him arrested. We don't want him kicked off the property," he said. ÒWe just don't want students to have to see that every day and think that's the only opinion about who they are."


Members of Pride Union spoke with the Department of Public Safety the night before to alert them of the protest. DPS was supportive of the protest and said officers would not step in unless any illegal or violent actions took place, Crandall said. Some members of Pride Union wore purple tape on their backs so DPS could identify them as organizers of the protest if anything got out of hand.


A.J. Ellis, a senior business major and member of Pride Union, said the overarching idea of the protest was to show that SU is a place where people can feel safe and comfortable with themselves. That idea was still accomplished even though Deferio didnÕt show up, he said.


If Deferio had showed up, the protest would have been more effective, Ellis said.


"It definitely would have brought more conflict," he said. "But, I don't know, is conflict a good thing?"


kronayne@syr.edu