Saturday, students at Brigham Young University donned angelic attire to protect LGBTQ students from hostile protesters.
LGBTQ students in Provo, Utah attended “Back to School Pride Night” at a neighborhood park.
The protesters came to disrupt the celebration, but the angel costumes helped obscure their anti-LGBT remarks on their signs.
Saturday night in Provo, Utah, students dressed as angels shielded LGBTQ students from anti-LGBTQ demonstrators screaming insults during “Back to School Pride Night.”
The Raynbow Collective, a nonprofit organization that helps LGBTQ students at Brigham Young University, held the event in a park prior to the start of the school year, according to the Salt Lake City Tribune. Anti-LGBT demonstrators shouted “pedophile” and “groomer” at LGBTQ students during this year’s annual event.
According to the Tribune, one man told the gathering of LGBT students, “You are going against God.” Others marched with signs bearing racial obscenities.
About 300 individuals attended the event. The Tribune said that a dozen individuals dressed as angels formed a barrier between them and the demonstrators.
The DIY costume consists of white sheets wrapped around PVC pipes to imitate angel wings. When the angels stood between the protesters and the LGBT students, their wings, which extended around three feet above their shoulders, blocked the anti-LGBT group’s flyers and posters in an effort to maintain the event joyful and safe for the attendees.
Sabrina Wong, a student at Brigham Young, told the Tribune, “I’m doing this because I want our LGBTQ community to feel free to be themselves and to know they have our support.”
Ahead of pride night, the police informed event organizers that they anticipated a big number of demonstrators.
According to the Tribune, Raynbow Collective founder and Brigham Young sophomore Maddison Tenney came up with the idea to build angel costumes to block demonstrators and safeguard event attendees.
At least as far back as 1999, a number of people dressed angel costumes to memorialize Matthew Shepard, a gay student at the University of Wyoming who was beaten and tortured by two men. Shepard died six days following the assault. People dressed as angels have continued to obstruct anti-LGBTQ protesters at parades, demonstrations, and events since then.
The Tribune claimed that, at Saturday’s ceremony, students dressed as angels filled any gaps that exposed anti-LGBTQ demonstrators. According to the Tribune, approximately one hundred angry demonstrators were there.
“I know that there are more people standing with us than against us,” Tenney stated in an address to the event attendees, as reported by the Tribune.