Anti-Gay Protest Mars Santana Graduation

Re “Santana Graduates Remember Classmates,” June 15: I was touched by the photo of Mari Gordon-Rayborn sitting among the graduates waiting to accept her son’s degree. The students at this school have been changed forever. The innocence of youth was erased on March 5.

A day of celebration, of excitement, of looking forward, was marred by the Rev. Fred Phelps and his gang of self-proclaimed saviors. As a gay man, I have followed his petty tirades and disruptions of funerals, commitment ceremonies and the like. By what stretch of the imagination can he conclude that the shooting was somehow connected to the school’s tolerance toward gays?

I question how people can follow someone who proclaims Christ as savior (and ultimate forgiver) and cruelly disrupts a graduation ceremony already overshadowed by the sadness of the shootings. For shame.

William Trusten

Los Angeles