Sometimes the strongest statement has no words at all.
Zea, a 7-year-old first grader, refused to be scared off or intimidated by a ranting street preacher during Ohio's Comfest this past weekend. Comfest is a free, community musical festival, but it turned into an impromptu celebration of marriage equality after SCOTUS' landmark ruling that granted gay marriages in all 50 states.
Zea's father Ryan Bowling uploaded the video of his daughter to YouTube, saying that she was not there to protest but she was there to volunteer like she does every year. While the preacher shouts at her about hell and brimstone and sin, Zea stands quietly in the face of maniacal hate-spewing, bravely holding a rainbow flag.
"This was not a march, or a political event. The preacher was accosting festival goers, including other families with children. His rhetoric, before being confronted by a small girl, was graphic, and bigoted," Ryan writes in the video's description. "He was escorted out by police a short time later."
Zea is our new hero. Even at that young age, she knows that when met with pure hate, love wins.