Source: The Stranger
An international coalition of fiercely homophobic religious leaders, calling themselves Watchmen on the Walls—whose followers are largely Eastern European conservative evangelicals—will converge on the Lynnwood Convention Center on October 19 through 21.

The occasional mobilization of anti-gay groups isn't unheard of in the Seattle area. In 2005, Kirkland pastor Ken Hutcherson organized the "Mayday for Marriage" rally, which drew 20,000 to Safeco Field. Unsurprisingly, Hutcherson will play a large role in this weekend's Watchmen conference -- which the group claims will draw between 500 and 700 attendees. Other speakers include regular Watchmen presenters such as Scott Lively, who published a book claiming that gays were responsible for the Holocaust; Alexey Ledyaev, the pastor of a Latvia-based megachurch; Joe Fuiten, a pastor at Bothell's Cedar Park Church and board member of the Family Policy Institute of Washington, a group linked with Focus on the Family; and Vlad Kusakin, the host of an anti-gay radio show in Sacramento and the editor of a Russian-language newspaper in Seattle.

While members of Watchmen on the Walls—whose name is a reference to the rebuilding of a ruined Jerusalem in the Old Testament—have not been directly linked to any violent acts against gays, their repeated rhetoric of a "war" against homosexuality, and their refusal to condemn attacks on homosexuals, has led to concern and confusion over how they're suddenly popping up in Seattle's backyard.

Eddie Tadlock, spokesman for the Lynnwood Convention Center, says the Watchmen approached them in August. "They [said] they were a church group, and they said they had met previously at the Meydenbauer Center [in Bellevue]. We checked their references. We deemed it as a church meeting."