Sunday, January 31, 2010

How to handle Fred Phelps

Fred Phelps, remember him, the hater from Kansas who likes to picket funerals? Apparently he tried to picket in San Francisco (because of the Prop8 trial) and got nailed by an absurdist counter protest. Gotta love it. The best response to him: mockery. More here!

9 comments:

Counterlight said...

"Build Prisons on the Moon."

Where do I sign the petition?

May God bless Phred Phelps, and may God keep him ... far away from me!

Fran said...

He has come to Albany (this hotbed of liberal life! LOL) twice in the past year. The first time he got punked when he announced that they would be protesting in front of Albany HS at 8am, when school started. Late on the day before, when it was too late for Phelps to change, the district declared a two hour delay for the morning.

Another time, a counter-protest like the one you posted about, drowned him out.

And then I like to remember when he came to Nyack to protest, when I lived there. This was around 2002 or 03, when marriage equality was really getting a lot of coverage. Our Nyack mayor was gay and he had made the national news himself with some proposed marriage legislation in NY.

Phelps coming to Nyack was him going to SF on a smaller but equally absurd scale. It is a *very* gay friendly town. It is not a Phelps friendly town.

Erp said...

Westboro Baptist Church was also in my town earlier that day including picketing a high school as the students should have arrived and taunting them over the 5 students who have killed themselves in the last year (most recently a week ago). Fortunately the school changed the normal start time so most students could avoid the cruelty of the Phelps family.

Malcolm+ said...

They proposed to some to Canada to protest at the murder of a man who had been murdered on a Grey Hound bus. There was no gay connection to the murder, fwiw. But the Phelpsians are really just about satanic hate anyway.

At that time, I proposed a similar but distinctly Christian strategy:
http://simplemassingpriest.blogspot.com/2008/08/dealing-with-hate.html

Göran Koch-Swahne said...

Fred Phelps went to Stockholm last year... No one noticed him. He went back.

Jarred said...

I love the signs. The other sign I loved was "I was promised donuts," as seen in the photo Joe.My.God posted.

David said...

These people are much kinder (and more creative) than I would be. I'm afraid my response to Phelps & Co. would involve the axe handle I keep in my garage :P

So it's probably best that I stay away from them...

Jarred said...

Only the handle, David? ;)

IT said...

More anti Phelps signs here