I agree with Yasha - as horrible as the WBC church is, whether they like it or not, they are doing some good in uniting people against homophobia. Just their sheer hatred and idiocy alone. Actually, when I first heard of WBC and all the signs and stories, I thought for sure they were all trolls, trying to make homophobia look bad. I couldn't believe they were for real.

Nate Phelps' story actually makes it make a lot more sense, I guess. (thanks for the link, Hiraku!) Fred Phelps lives in his own coffin, to sum it up.

But no matter how horrible he is, he's done wonders for the gay community. When I went to the counter-protest for WBC in Louisiana (that they didn't even show up to - we did have facebook groups for it, so they probably knew not to show up) we had hundreds of people in a small, little town in conservative Louisiana! Everyone had signs mocking the WBC in so many different ways, music, singing, dancing. It was all just a big giant party. Even though WBC didn't show up, we still won by showing that we wouldn't stand for them and their hate.

The reason why I think the WBC made a difference in that is that otherwise, I don't think so many people would show up in solidarity (ugh, I know so many sociology majors who overuse this word, but it fits) with homosexuals. If it was just a regular church with a much more "acceptable", lighter version of intolerance towards gays, not as many people would care. There were so many straight guys that I knew that came to the protest, younger than me, and were completely comfortable with protesting WBC and their stupidity... if it weren't for WBC, I'm not sure if they would have been as comfortable with showing support for homosexuality. Maybe, but where I live it's almost like every young guy is at least a little homophobic.... so I was kind of pleasantly surprised to see so many guys not being like "ew, the gay." Instead they were MOCKING the homophobes, not being the homophobes.

I do feel really bad for the children, though, especially after reading Nates' story. No kid deserves that. They grow up being taught that everyone but them is going to hell, but in all actuality, they are the ones living in hell on earth.

Last edited by SleepDebtFairy (08-16-2010 08:48:33 PM)

CausalityStar wrote:

It was nice to see WBC get owned by the comic-con people. WBC is basically the real-life equivalent of internet trolls.

You summed that up perfectly. ;)

^ LOL

"I kissed a girl" and "I love lamp" are my favorites.  Even if you cannot save those people from their state of mind, at least you can send them the message that it's a battle lost.