Oh hey look, it’s Real World DC‘s Mike Manning (on right), his sometimes-boyfriend Tanner Ray (on left), with friend Cole Abshere in Boulder, in front of Boulder High School, confronting the Westboro Baptist Church, which apparently has a bigger travel budget than a Britney Spears tour.
PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
Its nice to see people finally getting into the inbred bunch of lunatics faces. They only show up with less than 10 “people” and get the media attention as if there were 1000. If everyone simply ignored them they would simply stop their hatefests, like a little child throwing a tantrum and no one paying attention………
David Ehrenstein
Really love Mike and Tanner. Great work guys!
Counter-demonstrations against the Phelps creeps have proven to be a great way for LBGT’s to stand up and be counted AND ally themselves with straight supporters.
Lamar
It never ceases to amaze me how some so called Christians can say God hates us, have they got his phone number or something?
Sam
This post makes a good point about the Westboro Baptist Church. How the hell do they get the money to travel all over the place like that? It’s not donations – everyone hates them, even the KKK.
Man, I hope somebody can bust them for theft or fraud or something.
Jason
In a hotness contest, Manning wins hands down over any of those fat, badly dressed Baptists anyday!
GO MIKE GO!
Brutus
I’m getting really sick of hearing about Mike Manning.
Malachi
The Phelps Cherch actually makes money through these deliberately provocative demonstrations, by suing anyone who assaults or even slanders them. Many of their adult members are lawyers, so you can be certain they know how to ride the ragged edge. They often have several groups of such provocateurs traveling around the country at the same time.
David Ehrenstein
@Brutus: We’re sick of YOU dear.
Scott in NYC
Of course I stand on Mike’s side…but would the collectivel civilzed world cease to give this group a stage?
They are roughly 100 people, 80 or so of them are of one extended family. Each time someone answers them, they get the publiclity and feeding frenzy that perpetuates the cycle. The only relevance they have is the relevance forcefed to the public by the media. They’re the worst the world has to offer…abominations to the very God whose word they profess to disseminate. It’s time we treated them as such.
PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
@Malachi: Like an unchecked virus that just keeps mutating due to inbreeding………
@Brutus: What exactaly have you done for the Gay community? Mike has been out for like 10 minutes and he has done more for the Gay community than most of the BOQs who post on these threads have done in their entire lives.
hephaestion
I’m guessing Roger Ailes gives money to Westboro Baptist so they can travel everywhere.
PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
Check out Mike’s official site, Nice package he’s packing!
http://www.mikegetsreal.com/pictures/?album=6&photo=49
Blake J
MIke Manning is awesome!!!
And it is so cool that Tanner is right there with him!!!
If only more people would do their part to fight for equality.
So he is extending his fifteen minutes of fame that he obtained from participating in a reality show (he would not be the first), but at least he is doing it for a good reason.
If you are ‘sick of him’ do not click on the links about him, and ignore the compulsion to write something negative.
Because you are just behaving like a typical pathetic homophobe that trolls for homosexual content just to leave its vile mark!
nikko
Oh, I’d love me some Mike! So hot, so cool, so good. Good for him. Cute, good manners, good morals, loves family, is Bi, what’s not to love?! Good for him.
Jeff K.
It’s only a matter of time before one of them gets shot. In fact, I’m surprised it hasn’t happened already.
JamesStone
@Scott in NYC. I totally agree. This story needs to be on CNN. If it was a Phelps protest it certainly would be.
B
No. 3 · Lamar wrote, “It never ceases to amaze me how some so called Christians can say God hates us, have they got his phone number or something?”
Actually they do — sort of. Read http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18216-dear-god-please-confirm-what-i-already-believe.html to see why. Basically, some researchers used MRI to see what parts of the brain were active when some Christian test subjects were asked, what they believed, what others believed, and what God believed. The results are rather amusing. The part of the brain that was active when there were deciding what God believed was the same part that was active when they were asked what they believed. When given a task that caused them to think and shift their beliefs as a result, God’s beliefs shifted as well.
Steve
@Sam wrote: “How the hell do they get the money to travel all over the place like that? It’s not donations – everyone hates them, even the KKK.”
I’m sure they do raise the money from donations. The Westboro Baptist “Church” is a 501-C(3) tax-exempt organization. There are enough people who support them to keep them funded, operating, and traveling. The “protest” trips probably don’t take much more than a few hundred thousand per year. With the amount of publicity they get, I am sure they can raise several million per year if they want. Most of the rest likely goes to pay the pastors salary.
His business model is not based on appealing to a large audience, of course. It is based on a small number of dedicated supporters. Just a few thousand supporters, giving an average of a couple thousand, would be more than enough to keep him going. I am certain that there are at least a few thousand hard-core bigots in this country.
The good thing about this is that the counter-protesters routinely outnumber his bunch. And, the media is beginning to cover the counters, and label the WBC wackos as the wackos.
YoGrl
I understand that GLAAD needs a fake church to show Biblical stupidity to the world.
But I really wish you guys would not use the fake church to make light of child abuse. I was abused as a child and so were my siblings.
We all ran away from home in our teens.
We did NOT adopt out parents’ crazy beliefs nor travel the country with them shouting hatred at people.
Nor did we financially support them as they beat us. If the Phelp’s kids were abused, they would not be supporting their parents financially nor staying with them past the age of 18. they would not adopt their beliefs. I know Fred Phelps was really a great Civil Rights Attorney who won many awards for his work on behalf of African Americans and what he has done for the gay community is harder to see. I know the reasons he has to be remembered as a madman, but I don’t think it’s necessary he be remembered as child abuser unless the kids act a little more abused.
Mark
So I don’t know Mike or Tanner personally, but I do know that Cole Abshere is a self-serving, pretentious douche who only does stuff like this for exposure and attention. Guilt by association. If you hang with trashy, selfish people, you’re probably the same way. Usually.
Mark
(from ‘You’re Invited To Mike…’)
Haha…You’re right! Even the look on Cole’s face is for the camera, and matches NO ONE elses. You’re right, he’s a sycophant. Lol. That was a total publicity stunt that went awry. Just like the NOH8 knock-off. Mike’s trying to use charities and “good causes” for personal gain. It makes sense now. Sycophant blows the case! Thanks!
(decent work on their part tho…if they didn’t use charities…dumbasses)
Read more: http://www.queerty.com/youre-inivted-to-mike-mannings-graduation-party-20100510/comment-page-1/#comment-301887#ixzz0ng4kRnZJ