Phelps/Westboro Baptist Church

[Madspirit]

I've always wondered, as a lesbian, how many people would be saying boo about these idiot asswipes if they were just protesting at the funerals of gay people, not soldiers or victims of violent crimes...just gay people. We at DU would. A lot of the people wouldn't and I wonder if those bikers would be there..... Yeah, right.
Lee

[ulysses]

1. my hope,

and it's a faint one but still, is that all this will have the effect of opening the eyes and minds of at least a few who didn't mind so much back when it was just the funerals of gay folks.

Like I say, a faint one, but we all have our eyes opened somehow.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

2. A certain number of liberals who don't come to DU would, I think

I saw 'The Matthew Shepard Story' and know that the people involved in it were interested in erasing hatred towards gays/lesbians.

But yeah, I don't know how many would be aware of Phelps if they were still just picketing gay funerals. I find it interesting that Phelps was the one who chose to start picketing everyone, it seems, who has been killed. It shows that his hatred is really directed at everyone. Wonder how many anti-gltb people are also filled with hate like him?

[damntexdem]

5. Phelps was known and condemned nationally for picketing gay funerals.

It has only been since he added soldiers' funerals that CONSERVATIVES have gotten upset at him.

[Irreverend IX]

3. I don't think as many would be as pissed at them...

After all, why do you think Phelps started protesting other funerals? His shtick was getting old and he needed a way to get more people pissed off at him.

[bluestateguy]

4. The Right was silent about Phelps and his thugs for years

They have been picketing funerals of AIDS victims and known homosexuals for almost 20 years. It wasn't until Phelps and his ilk began to picket the dead soldiers funerals that the Right began to speak out against the Westboro "Church".

[Madspirit]

6. ...and so it goes.

I already knew all the righteous indignation about these people didn't come from the "gay" part of their message....just the "soldier" part.
Lee

[BOSSHOG]

7. Many of those soldiers were Gay and served proudly

I guess I'm a little warped but I think it reflects greatly on those being buried if the phelps trash chooses to protest their funerals.

[Madspirit]

8. Not warped...

I understand what you are saying.
Lee

[Breeze54]

9. None of the soldiers that were/are killed are gay?

None of the motorcycle riders are gay?

How do you know that? :shrug:

The Patriot Guard formed in 2005, is made up mostly of veterans, from what I've read on their website.

snip-->

The Harley Honor Guard

By DAVID VAN BIEMA

Monday, May. 01, 2006

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1189333,00.html

After more than a dozen such episodes, five American Legion Riders from Kansas decided last August
that they had had enough. At subsequent funerals, they gathered fellow bikers to form a human
shield between Phelps' disciples and the bereaved, blocking the protesters' signs with flags and
occasionally revving their engines to drown out the insults. Soon the riders outgrew the protesters.
Phelps' church has only about 75 members, mostly his relatives. But the newly named Patriot Guard
expanded exponentially and today claims 28,000 bikers and supporters. They attend every single
military funeral for which the family gives permission. "We joined because of Fred Phelps, but now
the whole focus is off Fred Phelps," says California state coordinator Cheryl Egan.

"It's more about the troop who just gave his or her life."

And about a unique coalescing of needs and remedies. Some of the riders are grizzled Vietnam vets
looking for closure. "They didn't get thanked for their service," says Gus Quist, the leader of
the group at Captain Ian Weikel's funeral in Colorado Springs, Colo., last week, "and we want to
say thank you to this next generation." Others are hobbyists a generation younger and simply happy
to pay respects. The group is strictly culture-war neutral.

Notes Patriot Guard California state ride captain David (Scooter) Bolton:
"Nobody cares if gay or not. It's not a meet-and-greet-and-date organization.
It's to honor fallen heroes."

more......

[Madspirit]

13. Thanks Breeze

That was good to read.

I still don't think the world in general would be as upset if it was just gays.

One of our very progressive members, ComeroPerro, who lives in Topeka where these nuts are, said his really conservative uncle only doesn't like them because of the soldier funeral protests but he agrees with their gay message....

Lee

[blondeatlast]

10. Tangent: Phelps has too much money, too much time on his hands and above all:

TOO g*dDAMN much press.

We need to discuss this man and his "church" rationally and the earlier thread (the reports are unconfirmed, fwiw) set people off but did nothing to advance the converation.

He's anti-social and damn near psychotic--if bikers showed up to keep me in line while I practiced a hobby; I'd give the hobby the hell up. To me, that proves that his problem isn't just pure hatred and skewed beliefm, but psychosis; the same kind of stuff that fuels the bin Ladens of this world.

He loves the attention and he gets it everytime. What's worse is that if he doesn't get the attention, he may go to more extreme lengths next time. I don't care one salad fork who his target is at any particular time. He just needs to be stopped somehow.

OTOH, I have no ideas. If the press would stop coming, it scares me to think of what he might do to get attention.

[frogcycle]

11. No question he'd be much more "under the radar"

I seem to recall a pretty big hubbub when he picketed the funeral several years ago of a gay teenage hate crime murder victim, some national press. I think that's when I first heard of him. So I guess if he were "only" doing that now, there'd be some coverage. I don't think the PG would have been formed though. And I really don't know if the PG today would mobilize for a non-military person.

We as a nation seem to be getting our noses rubbed in our complacency a lot lately.

[MiniMe]

12. Even Hannity thinks this guy is a nutjob

You know its bad if DU agrees with Hannity about something.

[Monk06]

14. Westboro PWNED by Aussie TV.................

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8cN2pB3MCE

[MADem]

15. When this Phelps asshole first came on MY radar:

I had never heard of the idiot (hell, I was working a fourteen hour day), but I was a fan of Michael Moore's "THE AWFUL TRUTH" series. That's where I first saw the jerk, when Moore and a bunch of performance artists got into Phelps' and Co's faces with some rather outrageous and gay-themed "performance art."

The delight of it all was watching them run like rabbits--the Moore group actually got the sign waving dunces to run like hell. It was an episode worth remembering, and if they aired it again, certainly worth watching.

[bryant69]

16. That's why he is protesting at high profile funerals

You see it's all about positioning. The truth is, in America, pissing on Homosexuals just doesn't carry much weight. People aren't as impressed by that as they used to be. Phelps can't get much out of that, unless he marries it to something like pissing on soldiers or pissing on victims of a tragic shooting.

Actually I'm relatively convinced that Phelps is hoping to be a martyr; and I suspect he may eventually get his wish.

Bryant
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