“Conservative Ladies of WA,” Washington III%, and “Gays Against Groomers” held a “Protect Our Children” rally Friday at the Washington State Capitol in Olympia, where they were met with counter-protest.
The two sides were mostly kept apart by police, security, and barriers, but a handful of people from the counter-protest side came over to the rally at one point.
“All perverts evacuate the area!” a woman yelled at them. Washington III% leader Erik Rohde stepped in to say it’s “her First Amendment right.”
Rohde gave the first speech at the “Protect Our Children” rally, beginning by taking his bulletproof vest off because “I wear the armor of God!”
He accused State Rep Alex Ramel (D) of sending over the protesters to “instigate.”
As Rohde led the crowd in a chant of “We will fight! We will fight!” a counter protester interrupted by entering the stage while playing a tuba.
“Debate me, don’t hate me!” Rohde said.
“I am fighting against hate speech,” the tuba man said.
Conservative Republican State Rep Jim Walsh was the only elected official to speak.
He claimed new legislation will “chip away in narrow ways at your foundational rights to raise your children and grandchildren, to keep your families together as you see fit.”
Before the conservative “Protect our Children” rally in Olympia Washington on Friday, a transgender woman wearing a Bud Light hat and buttons attempted to debate the conservative rally-goers.
“Less than one in three trans children are supported at home by their parents,” she said.
“That doesn’t mean anything because trans children are not real, it’s a false category,” replied a man in an “Alex Jones for President” shirt.
“It’s manipulation by teachers, the corporate state, and Bud Light,” another added.
“Why is it any different to groom your children to be cisgender?” she asked.
He claimed new legislation will “chip away in narrow ways at your foundational rights to raise your children and grandchildren, to keep your families together as you see fit.”
