Get RNS’ thoughtful, essential religion reporting every morning. Sign up for free!
WENATCHEE, Wash. (FāVS News) — When anti-LGBTQ+ protesters appear at churches and Pride festivals in the Wenatchee area of Washington state, a group of interfaith leaders has a response ready: They dance.
“We bring a speaker, and we play music and we have a dance party,” said the Rev. Dane Breslin of The Sunnyslope Church, a United Church of Christ congregation in Wenatchee. “It drowns out whatever harmful or hurtful thing is being said by the protesters.”
The group, which has been deployed several times, has been dubbed the “rainbow response team” and includes about 25 members, Breslin said. They coordinate in a group chat and, when a protest happens, leaders show up with speakers, friends and a joyful attitude, turn on some Chappell Roan and dance their hearts out.
The rainbow response team was started when anti-LGBTQ+ Christian podcaster Dillon Pastors and a few of his supporters attended a clothing swap at The Sunnyslope Church last fall. They brought a loudspeaker and a microphone and preached “selective (Bible) verses,” claiming the church had demons and was leading people astray, said Zoe Jaspers, the church’s education chair.
After a short discussion, church leaders decided to get some music going and dance. “Something that can kind of diffuse some of this energy,” Jaspers said.
The first song that came on, Jaspers recalled, was Jack Johnson’s “Banana Pancakes.”
“It took what was a pretty tense and scary moment and made it something that we can figure out how to roll with and have compassion for the folks who wanted to kind of set themselves up in opposition,” Jaspers said. “We wished them well and we sang to them and danced, and it made it a moment for community.”
The next Sunday, after Pastors announced he would be protesting New Song Community Church, a progressive church in East Wenatchee, interfaith members of the group showed up to provide a counter-message so that people could peaceably attend their worship service.
“There was no confrontation,” said Andrea Despian, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and part of the rainbow response team. “He didn’t actually show up.”
By that point, however, the group had already laid the groundwork for the official creation of the rainbow response team.
The rainbow response team was also deployed at this year’s Wenatchee Pride, when a group of protesters set up shop in the center of the food court. Despian said the protesters brought a camera and anti-LGBTQ+ signs with them and seemed to be seeking conflict.
To counter this, the rainbow response dance team started blasting ABBA music. Other people attending Pride also joined in, Jaspers said.
The counter-protesters eventually left, Despian said.
The rainbow response team and its emergency dance protocol are a way to introduce nonviolent strategies into a situation that otherwise could escalate and become confrontational, Breslin said.
“Hurt people hurt people,” Despian said, remembering some of the conversations that had started the rainbow response team. “We want to respond to this with compassion.”
One of the group’s missions is to live out principles of nonviolence, Jaspers said.
“Whatever our response is should be rooted in love,” Jaspers added. “If we say we’re committed to nonviolence and we say we were committed to the dignity of the human person, that includes all human persons.”
The rainbow response team and the strategies it uses are part of a larger movement by the Interfaith Justice Coalition of North Central Washington to teach people how to deescalate situations, build relationships to combat anti-LGBTQ+ sentiments and more, Breslin said. More than 140 people have been involved in its work.
Although the rainbow response team hasn’t mobilized often, the hope is that it will always be ready, with planned strategies for how to address any organized anti-LGBTQ+ sentiments that may arise.
“Having the strategy already pre-talked about means that we have it in practice already,” Jaspers said. “It’s a lot easier to get into motion because we already have done the movements of it.”