When news got out that Church Militant, an alt-right group, was hosting a nativity and caroling event at Ferndale City Hall in Michigan, members of the community that oppose the group’s alt-right views of women, diverse faiths, abortion, and the LGBT community, had three basic responses to choose from:
1) ignore them.
2) show up and protest them.
3) host a separate event with a focus on love and acceptance.
The Church Militant hosted a "Noel Night," and the people at Go Comedy decided to choose option number 3 above and took the high road and hosted a truly festive holiday time across the street.
On Wednesday, Dec 20, the owner of the Ferndale Improv Theater, PJ Jacokes, threw a pop-up dance party in the theater's parking lot, drawing a far larger crowd than the alt-right, anti-feminist, anti-LGBT group's sparsely attended fete. According to the Oakland County Times, while there were about sixty people protesting the obviously Grinchy Noel Night, only thirty or so Church Militant members turned out for the Christmas stunt. Meanwhile, Jacokes and his staff hosted revelers throwing down to music by Madonna, NSYNC and Wham! among others.
We do love some Christmas carols, but when they are accompanied with wishes of hate and disgust, the logical thing is to break out the gay anthems and have a dance party right?
"We wanted to host our parking lot dance party as a counter-offering to the group across the street, because we wanted to give everyone the chance to celebrate the things they love, rather than just be angry at the agents of hate," Jacokes told the Times. "There's enough anger out there already, and, while our mission is fundamentally the opposite of theirs on seemingly every level, we'd rather bring more joy to the world than anger and this seemed like a good way to do it. Plus, you know, who doesn't love Wham?"
Love Wins raised $500 and will donate the funds to Affirmations LGBT Community Center.
Do you think hosting the dance gaythering was the right response?
Could we have let them sing songs to their baby in the hay and just ignored them?
Should we have protested them with signs at the town hall?
Or should we have danced?
What would you have done? Ignored, protested, or danced?
