The gay rights movement is one of the most prominent movements in the United States. In 37 out of 50 states, gay marriage is still against the law. Gay rights have been fought against for years now and much progress has been made. Even still, people combat the right of homosexual individuals. One movement however, sees this movement as an abomination to society.
The group called the Westboro Baptist Church has made it their goal to let the world know their, and gods views on homosexuality to be known. Mostly famous for picketing the funerals of dead soldiers, the Westboro Baptist Church has become one of the most hated families in America, and maybe even the world. They travel the United States picketing with signs that say, “God hates fags.” or “Homosexuality is a sin.” However, I believe that these people may be doing more good than bad.
On 5/30/2011, Westboro Baptist Church members gathered to protest the funeral of multiple soldiers that had died. They began to hold up signs and chant their anti-gay parody songs to modern pop singers and gathered attention. However, they were quickly met by multiple counter-protesters. These people showed up to prevent the Westboro Baptist Church from getting their message across. Curiously enough, the counter-protestors were proud members of the Ku Klux Klan. People started to gather around and counter-protest alongside the KKK members. There is a famous quote saying, “The enemy of my enemy, is my friend” This counter-protest is a prime example of this. People despise the Westboro Baptist Church so much, that they are willing the help fight against them with the notorious KKK.
The Westboro Baptist Church is attempting to fight against the gay rights movement, but in my opinion, they are only helping it. People see the hate in the group and when they hear about what they stand for, they immediately are influenced to go in the other direction. When the Westboro Baptist Church protests about the gay rights movement, they are counter-intuitively increasing the support towards it. In fact, people are willing to associate themselves with the KKK, just to make a point to the church. This is my argument for why the Westboro Baptist Church is a good thing for the gay rights movement.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/blogpost/post/klu-klux-klan-protests-westboro-baptist-church-video/2011/05/31/AGgoiPFH_blog.html The Washington Post 31 May 2011. March. Web. 11 March 2014.
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Counterintuitive Fall 2022 
“The gay rights movement is one of the most prominent movements in the United States.”
Maybe you could start the paper with this statement because until the second paragraph the reader thinks the essay is about how gay rights is just a prominent movement with a few protestors.
“With the gay rights movement being one of the most prominent movements in the United States, protesters may actually be helping by bringing more attention to the subject of equal rights.”
Erik is altogether right that you need to connect more of the dots to make your thesis statement compelling, obvious, and early, Ryan. Don’t copy his language though. I want to substitute something much more robust for that weak “With” opening. In addition, Erik uses the same observation twice, once as a cause, once as an effect. It’s already “one of the most prominent movements,” but all the protestors do in his sentence is “bring more attention to the subject.” —DSH
If your thesis is that dinosaurs are extinct because they couldn’t quit smoking, you wouldn’t start with this series of claims, Ryan:
1. Dinosaurs are really big animals.
2. In the middle of the country, they have trouble finding food.
3. Even so, they’ve managed to find ways to fend off starvation.
4. But those sources of food are always threatened.
5. One of their competitors for food, the mastodon, would love to see the dinosaurs go extinct.
I hope the analogy is clear.
P2. We’re still on deep background here, Ryan. Even the last sentence, which comes close to drawing a controversial conclusion, doesn’t clearly identify the “harm” or the “good” that the church might be doing.
A familiar and very effective argument style I will nickname the “If the God Hates Fags Church didn’t exist, the gay rights movement would have to invent it” style of argument. The argument makes the claim, as Vinny made to you, as you will soon (not soon enough) make to your readers, that oppressed groups benefit from public displays of oppression from distasteful opponents. The opposite of guilt by association, the If-they-hate-us-we-must-be-quite-lovable, or innocence by disassociation logic is certainly where you’re headed. I suggest you get the claim into your first sentence.
Never say: “I believe”; it converts your strong and authoritative claim into a personal opinion, no more convincing than your reader’s.
P3. The anecdote of the soldiers’ funeral is extremely valuable, but the connection between soldiers, fags, and funerals is entirely unclear. If it’s utterly illogical to bring those signs to that event, you’re our source for confirmation that there is no logical connection. Otherwise, we’ll just think we’re missing something—very distracting.
It might go without saying that counter-protests against the WBC, alongside the KKK or otherwise, don’t necessarily translate into support for gay rights, but I’ll say so anyway. As you put it yourself: “willing to help fight against [the WBC].” That’s very different from “willing to march in support of gay soldiers” or “in favor of gay marriage,” or whatever else you might be thinking it means.
P4. Never say “in my opinion.” See above.
Possibly your claim can be made convincingly, Ryan, but you’ll need to explain why showing up with signs at a military funeral is “protests about the gay rights movement.”
Never say “this is my argument.” See above.
I hope some of this is helpful, Ryan. I love your topic and the thesis insofar as I understand it.
Grade recorded. Always improvable with revisions.
Better read this, Ryan. It scooped your thesis!
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/03/20/fred-phelps-friend-of-the-gays.html?utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_campaign=cheatsheet_afternoon&cid=newsletter%3Bemail%3Bcheatsheet_afternoon&utm_term=Cheat%20Sheet