Lakewood LGBT ‘protest’ is just one man’s silly rant (Opinion)

What if you threw a protest, and no one came? A recent call to protest an LGBT pride event at the Lakewood Blueclaws stadium has caused somewhat of an uproar in the media in the past few days. What people don’t realize and what needs to be clarified here, is that there will be no protest. Well, actually there could be, but It’s gonna be the lamest protest you’ve ever seen. Because it's basically a party of one.

Knowing that a protest like this seemed uncharacteristic of most Orthodox Jews, I did some looking around. It seems that the “organizer” is self appointed rabble-rouser/activist (you know the type) who professes to speak for all Orthodox Jews. The fact is, there is just about no one in Lakewood who agrees with his idea.

As the many conversations about this and the emails I’ve received will attest, (contrary to popular anti-Semitic propaganda), 99% of Orthodox Jews understand that they do not own the town. This guy may be the exception. Most have expressed concern that this man professes to represent the Orthodox Jewish community and its views.

The Lakewood Jewish community knows that the Blue Claws and its stadium are a business, a vital asset to the Lakewood economy, and know that they are entitled to celebrate whatever they want in this free country that we are lucky enough to live in. That is the sentiment of the overwhelming majority of the community there. While I will not name this lone-wolf “protestor”, at the risk of embarrassing him more than he’s already embarrassed himself, he is fully entitled to his opinion.

If I may conjecture here, he must be woefully unaware of ongoing efforts by residents and community leaders from ALL backgrounds all over Ocean county who are working hard to live in peace and harmony with their neighbors. To incite this type of negativity and friction between members of one community is simply wrong. If there are Orthodox residents of Lakewood who happen upon this post, I would urge you to “boycott the boycott” and ignore this guy.. and let’s just get back to the business of baseball. Play ball!

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