Oh, hey Westboring Baptist! Barely saw you there this weekend in Long Beach, given your little crowd was over taken by some counter-demonstrators. But there you were, holding up those gauche signs. Somebody really needs to teach you guys a few things about primary colors, you know? (But that recent shot of you folks in front of Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church? Cuuuute!) Up till now, we’ve been willing to give you a passing mention because, hey, you folks are ridiculous, and our readers love clowns. But now that little 24-year-old Megan Phelps-Roper, granddaughter of your group’s found Fred Phelps, is becoming a Twitter starlet, well, we’re falling into our “slave to celebrity” rabbit hole, and we cannot avert our eyes.
Especially when she keeps speaking to homosexual media. First she acknowledges there’s nothing she can do about the inevitable arrival of gay marriage, and now she’s talking about pornography.
So which are you a bigger fan of, Megs, gay or straight erotica? “Neither. Both are totally depraved and no way to live – and that’s true even if you don’t bring God into it!,” she says. “The porn industry and the fact that it thrives is just evidence that this proud, rebellious generation has no respect for themselves or for the standards of God. [… Gay-for-pay porn stars are] committing whoredom and teaching rebellion. They’re wrong to do so! But you knew that already — just like they do.”
What it must feel like to be bursting with such knowledge.
How about we take this to the next level?
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And while Westboro has made a habit of protesting military funerals (because God Hates America, ‘member?), this might be the first request that Megan has received (and accepted?). It’s from Mannix Vanderzee, and should he return from Iraq in a casket, he wants Megan and her cohorts to be there at his burial.
terrwill
QUEERTY….would you please stop giving this vile, disgusting, horse faced cunt any more publicity??? How the fuck would you feel if her and her inbred band of subhuman scumbags picketed at a funeral of one of your relatives?????? Would you think its “cute” or “intersting” to see this publicity whore getting more publicity??? If everyone would simply ignore them the would go away…….You need to generate clicks to get revenue, we get that. But have some sense of respect and decency………..
Joseph
Geez….RELAX!
terrwill
@Joseph: Sorry dude, I won’t…I know someone whos Brother died and these scumbags showed up….they tortured his elderly Mother and Father……….put youself in that place………….there is no excuse for any Gay entity to even mention these savages…….
scottscott
This is awesome. While I feel compelled to support anyone’s right to hold up a sign and say what they want to say, I love the way Long Beach handled the WBC’s visit.
There were middle fingers and signs referring to the WBC as a comedy troupe, but the real winners here were the irreverent. Signs like ‘God hates figs’, ‘Hi Mom’, and – my favourite – ‘Bring back Arrested Development’ flood the picketing with lighthearted and happy, joyful irreverence.
Instead of giving publicity to the WBC, this video and post is placing the spotlight on what a community can accomplish in the face of hatred. I bet A LOT of people went home that afternoon with big smiles and great stories.
Well done, Long Beach!
Bellicozy
@Terrwill
A lot of gay people define themselves by their opposition – who the new haters of the week are – Anyway, I agree with you – Time to Moveon.org these motherfuckers.
terrwill
@Bellicozy:TYVM! One can post info on the great response from the good guys withoug giving these subhuman scumbag savages any further publicity………
dontblamemeivotedforhillary
These people are so Jonestown!
SIGH
@dontblamemeivotedforhillary: We should be so lucky.
schlukitz
I dunno. I felt real proud of my gay brothers and sisters out in Long Beach. They done real good!
Ignoring people like this, merely give them our silent assent and simply emboldens them to become even more obnoxious, like the classic school bully that everyone was afraid to stand up t until someone finally knocked his headlights out.
We sent them a’running, with their tails between their legs..and that made me feel good. We should do this each and every time these asshats show up.
Jon
I tear up whenever I see the mass anti-WBC crowds. Can’t wait until they come to my town!
schlukitz
No. 10 · Jon
Isn’t that funny that you should say that. That’s exactly what I did when I saw the the anti-WBC crowd chanting “Go Home”.
Ian
I actually feel sorry for her as she’s the victim of being raised in a cult.
schlukitz
No. 12 · Ian
I don’t buy the “victim” status. She has a brain…and she should try using it. Oh, and she also has a little thing called “choice”, something people like her keep telling us about our sexuality.
I was raised a Catholic. It did not take me long to see just how warped and bigoted Catholicism was and is. I made the choice to stop paying homage to the very people who despised me for what I born to be.
She’s a big girl now and if she hasn’t noticed how fucked up her families ideas, ideals and religious concepts are…then she deserves every bit of unhappiness and misery that she wishes on us.
And if that sounds tit-for-tat, well, so be it. What goes around, comes around.
Lukas P.
Has any member of the Phelps clan broken away from the cult and spilled insider secrets? My little tour of googleville turned up nada.
Have other religious groups publicly denounced them?
schlukitz
No. 14 · Lukas P.
In answer to your first question, Yes. Nate Phelps, a son of Fred Phelps.
http://natephelps.com/
With respect to your second question, I did a little rooting around on Google, but all I could find was this blurb on Wikipedia that had no references to actual Churches that have denounced WBC.
Gay rights activists, as well as Christians of virtually every denomination, have denounced him as a producer of anti-gay propaganda and violence-inspiring hate speech.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Phelps
Cam
The interesting thing about the followers of the Westborough Baptist Church. Have you noticed that outside of the leader Fred Phelps, that all the spokespeople and secondary leaders seem to be women? It’s the same thing that happens in cultlike organizations like the Polygomous sects in Utah and AZ. The leader will kick out, banish etc… any other male who challanges him so most of the men in these organizations are neutered wimps. The wives of the leader in the plygomous sects are some pretty horrible people, and Fred Phelps’s daughter and Grandaughter seem the same. If you have every watched a video of the group, the men are all hiding behind their mommies skirts.
B
No. 14 · Lukas P. wrote: “Has any member of the Phelps clan broken away from the cult and spilled insider secrets? My little tour of googleville turned up nada.”
Try http://www.stoppingthehate.com/News-Article1302_Nate_Phelps_Estranged_Son_Of_Fred_Phelps_Speaks_Out_Publicly.htm which was found by searching for “Phelps estranged son” and contains the inside dope. Domestic violence, child abuse (physical, not sexual), child endangerment, etc. You can believe Nate Phelps or not, but even if he is exaggerating by a factor of 10, what’s left would still be terrible.
“Have other religious groups publicly denounced them?”
You can find some links at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westboro_Baptist_Church :
see http://primitivebaptist.info/mambo//index2.php?option=com_content&do_pdf=1&id=1434 for the reaction of the Baptist subdivision of which Phelps claims to be.
The first-class nut Jerry Falwell referred to Phelps as a first-class nut, suggesting that nuttiness is relative.
Anti-discrimination groups have accused them of being anti-semitic and anti-catholic. Most religious groups probably ignore them to limit the publicity they get.
romeo
These guys always run. I saw it myself once a few years ago. And when you see them in person, there really is something degenerate about them. Seriously, that church is just their family. Suspect it may be a bad genetic strain. A history of inbreeding possibly? They’d make an interesting case study.
Lukas P.
@B: @schlukitz: Thanks to both of you for the info and links.
I hope other Queerty readers will read up on these very scary people. As easy as it seems to just dismiss them as lunatics, how they think about us and what they say aren’t far off the mark from how many, many Americans think.
Their monomaniacal obsession with the gays is troubling, and their protests never fail to draw attention. I wish ignoring them worked, but it doesn’t.
I’d love to see a mainline megachurch preacher denounce their ideology, but I don’t think that would bring in the viewers and cash the Pastors so desperately need.
sebastien
I watch a documentary in UK about them and Megan is actually a very clever girl and she’s very interesting. I think she is just much a victim of her own parents and of her education. That’s sad to see so much intelligence wasted.
I can’t blame the girl . She has to live like a recluse with her parents , she was raised that way , she doesn’t know anything else outside the family cocoon…the world must look like a terrible place to her…