A group of students gathered on campus Thursday afternoon to protest a pair of preachers that were spreading anti-LGBTQ+ messages outside the K on Risman Plaza.

The protest group waved signs of positive affirmations and acceptance to negate the preachers’ messages of anti-homosexuality and claims that everyone walking by them was going to hell.

“I’m not the kind of person that’s trying to stand back while he spreads hate,” freshman exploratory major Maddie Touve said. “Especially against the people that are part of my community.”

According to protesters, the preachers arrived around 10 a.m. and protested around the library until they left around 4 p.m. Freshman zoology major Tracy Gavel stayed at the protest for around four hours talking with the preachers.

“They were just talking about God and the Bible and how we’re sinners,” Gavel said. “So I’ve just been helping protest because personally, I don’t think protesting that is right. And I think everybody should be able to do their own thing and just have their own beliefs.”

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Grace Springer

From left to right, students John Ruby Rainey, Olivia Serafim and Karenna Schaller, hold signs during the protest.

Kent State has been named one of the best LGBTQ+ campuses in the nation for the third consecutive year in a row, and students want to keep it that way.

“I think campus should be a safe place where people can not come and spread hate,” Touve said.

Troy Pierson is general assignment editor. Contact him at [email protected]. Sophie Young, Anthony Scilla, Grace Davies and Emily King also contributed to this report.