Waukesha LGBTQ+ organization forms safety plans ahead of 'Warriors for Christ Training'
A picnic with lawn games was planned for Waukesha's Frame Park on Aug. 6., hosted by LGBTQ+ advocacy organization PFLAG Waukesha.
Although it was described by PFLAG's Facebook event as a relaxing afternoon, a group of protesters perceived it to be more sinister.
The group of about 50 protesters from Mercy Seat Christian Church in Brookfield said they came to the picnic to speak out against homosexuality and the danger of exposing it to children.
What that group saw as their duty to God, though, was another group's source of fear for their safety as allies and members of the LGBTQ+ community. Protesters outnumbered picnickers two to one, surrounding them on all sides as they preached through loudspeakers.
Now, that fear has only been intensified by the upcoming "Warriors for Christ Training Night," organized by a protester and Mercy Seat church member. It's billed as chance for young people to learn how to speak out against "the LGBTQ movement with the sword of the Spirit."
"We are now formulating safety plans involving security officers to protect ourselves, and notifying police every time we have an event as a precaution," said PFLAG President Julie Reuss, who said the picnic isn't the first time Mercy Seat protesters have disrupted events.
A rise in opposition to the LGBTQ+ community isn't unique to Waukesha County, according to a report from the Anti-Defamation League and LGBTQ+ organization GLAAD that tracked more than 350 incidents of harassment, vandalism or assault motivated by anti-LGBTQ+ extremism from June 2022 to April 2023.
And 496 bills targeting LGBTQ+ rights are being considered across the United States, according to the ACLU's anti-LGBTQ bill tracker.
Protest group associated with national organization
In Frame Park on Aug. 6, protesters from Mercy Seat Christian Church prepared to do what they've also done at Pride events this summer in Watertown and Milwaukee — preach the gospel to defy "tyrants," as the church's pastor, Matt Trewhella, describes on his website.
"They surrounded us on all four sides of the shelter and continuously badgered us for the entire three-hour duration of our (picnic)," Reuss said. "When asked to leave us alone because this was a private event, they refused. There were only about 25 of us."
Waukesha LGBTQ+ advocate Dave Dringenburg said he went to Frame Park that day in an attempt to distract protesters from bothering people who were there to enjoy PFLAG's picnic.
"I think the picnic (protest), plus this training, it just feels like the LGBTQ community is definitely under attack, and I refuse to stay silent in the midst of it," said Dringenburg.
As a Christian familiar with scripture, he was able to speak to demonstrators for about two hours, he said, who shocked him with their interpretations of the Bible.
"I talked with (a protester), and he told me that he thinks that gay men should be subject to capital punishment," Dringenburg said. "It was stunning to hear that; that this church proclaims to be representative of God and Christ is wanting to kill homosexual people just because of who they're attracted to."
This kind of behavior does not represent Christianity, Dringenburg said.
"They're not mainline Christians," Dringenburg said. "They are very condemning to the point at which it made me disappointed for non-Christians to see people who claim to be Christian acting in this way."
At one point, a group of children from the church came together to pray for him, Dringenburg said.
"I'm not one to turn down prayers, but they think that somehow I'm so far off in my belief that I needed their assistance to be saved," he said. "They can recite scripture, but they don't have an understanding of it, unfortunately."
Mercy Seat church is linked to Operation Save America, an evangelical ministry that campaigns against abortion and the LGBTQ+ community through outreach initiatives, such as public preaching, protests and conferences.
When members of the church were arrested while protesting a Pride event in Watertown's Riverside Park earlier this summer, Trewhella filmed himself speaking to police, telling them they had arrested the "good guys," rather than those at the Pride event who were "sexualizing children."
When the children who are exposed to homosexuality and drag performers grow up, "they'll be the people who decide whether you live or die when you're elderly," Trewhella told police. "This is what they're training, so you have to make a decision to either go along to get along, or to, at some point, make a stand."
Mercy Seat church member Marcus Schroeder, who was one of the protesters at PFLAG's picnic, said that Trewhella encourages church members to have open conversations with the other side.
"One of the things my pastor emphasizes a lot is, the best way to have this discussion is to ask questions to the other side, because then you can understand more of their position, and have them understand their position better, as well," Schroeder said.
However, picnic-goers described being preached at through loudspeakers and feeling harassed.
Pastor David Simmons was among those yelled at by protesters.
Trewhella's son-in-law, Jason Storms, who's a member of the church and the director of Operation Save America, told Simmons he couldn't really be a pastor if he supports the LGBTQ+ community.
"You call yourself a priest," said Storms in a video captured by Simmons. "I would say a Judas priest would be a more applicable name."
Warriors for Christ Training Night says it will encourage conversations; LGBTQ advocates fear otherwise
Schroeder describes Warriors for Christ as a coalition of young people in the area "from probably eight or nine different churches." The group is under the ministry of Operation Save America, he said.
Warriors for Christ's Sept. 9 event will be the group's first training night. It also hosted a three-day long conference in Milwaukee earlier this summer.
Schroeder said the event will help attendees learn how to defend Christian values and morality, especially in a time when children are attending events like drag queen story hours.
"Our biggest goal is just to help train young people to learn how to be able to understand arguments for and against the things that we believe in," Schroeder said.
"The LGBTQ acronym stands for people's preference, their sexual behavior, and so I don't think that it's appropriate for children to be taught and encouraged to be brought into," Schroeder said.
He was also at the Waukesha School District building in July in support of the school board's decision to fire former teacher Melissa Tempel, who faced criticism for publicly disagreeing with the district's decision to ban the song "Rainbowland" from an elementary school concert.
The Warriors for Christ training features speakers such as former Rep. Timothy Ramthum, now vice president for the Kewaskum School Board, and former Wauwatosa teacher Jim Krause, now an academic advisor for Judeo-Christian online school FreedomProject Academy.
Schroeder said that even though Warriors for Christ disagrees with LGBTQ+ people's actions, the coalition still believes "that they have value and dignity and should be treated as such."
LGBTQ+ youth who experienced anti-LGBTQ+ victimization, such as discrimination and conversion therapy, are more than twice as likely to attempt suicide than those who were not, a 2022 Trevor Project study found.
To best support LGBTQ+ people's mental health, their identities should be respected, the American Psychiatric Association says.
The Republican Party of Waukesha County Headquarters and the Brookside Baptist Church were originally scheduled to host the Warriors for Christ training. The event venue is now Muskego's The Church in Wisconsin.
Neither previous location responded to the Journal Sentinel's request to explain why they are no longer hosting.
While Schroeder said the group wants to have conversations with and not harm anyone in the LGBTQ+ community, those who have been subject to Mercy Seat protests aren't convinced.
Reuss fears that the training will create more interruptions to events like this one. She's already noticed an increase in protesters since PFLAG's LGBTQ+ townhall that was held at the Waukesha Public Library in June.
"Since (the group was founded) in February, we have been open and inviting to all and, up until now, the reception we've had has been incredibly positive," Reuss said.
People reach out to PFLAG Waukesha every day to help the LGBTQ+ community, president says
While Reuss has noticed an increase in anti-LGBTQ+ protesters at PFLAG's events, requests from people asking how they can help the LGBTQ+ community haven't wavered.
"I am contacted on an almost daily basis from people who want to know more about how to support the LGBTQIA+ community," Reuss said.
While protesters may think they can "bully" LGBTQ+ people into being invisible again, they're wrong, she said.
"Parents want a safe place to gather and talk about their LGBTQIA+ kids," Reuss said. "People are tired of the discrimination and harassment this community faces on a daily basis and want it to stop."
There is no reason to fear LGBTQ+ people, Reuss said, who are a part of the normal human condition just as others are.
"We make society safer for everyone if their rights as human beings are respected," Reuss said.
Quinn Clark can be emailed at QClark@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @Quinn_A_Clark.
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: PFLAG worried about growing evangelical protests of LGBTQ+ events
