M-A protest planned in Palo Alto today at noon

It’s a different county, a different school and a different week, but a common cause.

Some 25 to 40 students from Menlo-Atherton High School are planning to show up to today at noon outside Gunn High School in Palo Alto with signs and T-shirts in support of gay and lesbian rights, said M-A student and protest organizer Hannah Rosenfeld in an e-mail.

The idea, Hannah said, is to show moral support for the Gunn High community in light of a protest at the school in January by representatives of Kansas-based Westboro Baptist Church, a church that has made a name for itself at fax machines everywhere by claiming in daily missives that God hates homosexuals.

The recent string of student suicides at Gunn drew the Westboro group’s attention.

The M-A effort is a counter-protest. “We want to demonstrate to the Bay Area community that we won’t stand for intolerance and bigotry, but that we value and respect the diversity that our community has to offer,” said Hannah.

“We would like our story to make the news in the same places the Westboro Church did so that the community can see that there are people fighting for acceptance and love.”