Everyone’s favorite fundamentalist church, headed by Fred Phelps, famous for their “God hates fags” mantra, is coming to Portland Monday. On Westboro’s protesting docket are several things, including (via Just Out):
Portland State University Campus, whom, according to the God Hates Fags Web site are “enablers” because of their Queer Resource Center, nondiscrimination policy that protects sexual minorities and gender neutral bathrooms.
Next up, at 8:30 a.m., the Swedish Consulate in Portland, for arresting “Bible preachers and put them in prison in that evil nation.”
9:30 a.m. The Westboro crew will picket at Portland’s Germany Consulate. They say, “They did much evil in their history, and now to try to kiss fag ass and distract from that fact they have become more and more evil.”
Next the crew heads to Silverton, Ore. for an 11:30 a.m. protest against the city’s new transgender mayor, Stu Rasmussen. “We are going to come to your little Oregon town to speak some words of truth to this 60-year-old pervert. Nobody else will just tell him to STOP THAT!”
Westboro Baptist is famous for their radical right, anti-gay stance, which has protested at military funerals among other highly inappropriate places. It’s fairly safe to say, then, that all this is largely a media ploy, and an effective one at that. They have a very public, and very full schedule of all their protests, that makes no qualms about building their very foundations on the incendiary “God hates fags” moniker.
So while they are so out there it’s almost tempting to ignore them we must also remember that even the absurd can rise to power in troubling times. So we better keep an eye on them, even if it is just a little mild heckling or a “God <3's fags" t-shirt...
