hate speech

Megan Phelps Knows Gay Marriage Is Inevitable. And She’s Thrilled

“It’s fake,” Megan Phelps says of religion. “Most people don’t follow the standards of God. We picket a lot of churches, Catholic and Protestant, because those people claim that they are preaching what the Bible says. And instead of saying what the Bible actually says – that God hates people, that you have a duty to obey God – they say, ‘God loves everyone’ and, essentially, ‘You can live like the devil and still expect to go to Heaven when you die.'” How can you not adore this woman?

The granddaughter of Westboro Baptist Church founder Fred Phelps, Megan has become an Anti-Gay Icon recently, thanks to her Lady Gaga sing-a-longs and Twitter fights. She is, like Pat Robertson, a fan of blaming Haiti’s earthquake on its sinful people, she tells former Queerty editor Andrew Belonsky in a new interview. But she’s also an “everygirl,” you’re typical American young person, who attended public school and listens to Green Day (and yes, sometimes Lady Gaga, who has “sick beats” but is also “a nasty, filthy perve”).

She has fears like the rest of us, like her her chances of getting married (“I really, really doubt it. … “Who wants a part of this?”) and her chances of getting into heaven (“I have a hope, and I look everyday for evidence that my God has had mercy on me … If I end up in hell, that means that God does not love me”).

And, also like the rest of us, she sees gay marriage as inevitable: “Same-sex marriage is a fait accompli in this nation. I remember taking a government class and they were talking about the full faith and credit clause of the constitution. If all these states have to recognize marriages from other states and you already have Massachusetts, Iowa – they have same-sex marriage. The constitution trumps DOMA, so doesn’t everyone have to recognize those marriages? That’s a fact. Same-sex marriage is fait accompli. It’s going to happen. It’s going to be everywhere and I’m pretty sure that trial in California, I would be willing to bet that they’re going to say that homosexuals have the right to marry and it’s going to spread all across this nation. And I am happy about that. … Here’s why: it is a sign. This generation is going to be destroyed and their destruction is imminent and that destruction can’t come until their cup of iniquity is full and everything that they do is furtherance of that. This isn’t going to get better. It’s never going to get better. It’s only going to get worse.”

Take that, Maggie Gallagher.

What Megan Phelps is doing, at the fringe level, is “normalizing” hate. Yes, it’s destructive, but it’s also terribly fascinating, in the same way that Meghan McCain‘s pro-gay stance is. Phelps is an attractive, 24-year-old girl with a sharp tongue — the type that cuts through the bland rhetoric of today’s talkingheaddom era. And while it’s easy to brand her as a bigot (she is) or someone full of hate (also true), she’s manufactured an appeal for other young people who “don’t know any homosexuals” and, like white supremacist and neo-Nazi leaders, are able to welcome souls into their fold by promising them answers and calm.

Do not dismiss Megan Phelps. She is this generation’s Bible-thumping terror.

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