Iowa City: Protest doesn't slow down City's graduates



by Rob Daniel, Iowa City Press-Citizen



It was a tale of two worlds at City High's graduation Saturday night at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.



As the
330 graduates marched to their seats inside the arena, a group of about
15 protesters, including three children, from Westboro Baptist Church
in Topeka, Kan., stood outside denouncing what they said was City
High's enabling of the gay lifestyle. Across the street from the church
protest was a counter-protest of about 75 people.



This
came after graduate Ilse Bendorf last week received the Matthew Shepard
scholarship, a state award in honor of a gay Wyoming college student
who was killed that is given to a high-achieving student who is openly
gay. Bendorf declined to comment on the protests or the graduation.



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