(no subject)

[rivka]

Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church, of "God Hates Fags" fame, will be taking time out from their busy schedule of picketing soldiers' funerals to protest in Baltimore this weekend.

They'll be set up just a block from our house - outside the Baltimore School for the Arts, where the kids are performing The Laramie Project.

Just what is the proper response to the invasion of your neighborhood by this... utter filth?

Comments

[wiredferret.livejournal.com]

Buying tickets to the production.

And making a window sign that says, "Judge not, lest ye be judged."

[juliansinger.livejournal.com]

He and his crew came to Cambridge when Cambridge was the first city hall to open up for non-heterosexual marriages.

Mostly, we dealt with it by ignoring HIM and doing what we were there for, which is to say, celebrate equal rights.

Me, I'd just go to the play.

[therealjae.livejournal.com]

Wow. There are brushes with greatness, and then there are brushes with...something.

I think I'd show up and quietly take pictures. But that's me.

-J

[mactavish.livejournal.com]

Collect pledges of donations to a local queer-friendly (HIV/AIDS, family outreach, PFLAG, etc.) organization from folks in the neighborhood for every minute or hour the protest lasts. Let Phelps know.

[kcobweb.livejournal.com]

Yeah, pledge-a-picketer!!! With a big "thermometer" sign showing how much you've raised.

[geminigirl]

I love that idea. I'd chip in some money for it.

[erikted.livejournal.com]

the /aut/Bar in Ann Arbor did this -- I think they were the first to come up with the idea. Raised quite a bit of cash, which they gave to the local LGBTQ community center. It's been replicated several times since then, and it's great -- the longer they stay, the more money raised in pledges!

[lizardling.livejournal.com]

Ignore them and go to the play. They're just sad attention-whoring trolls.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

I think my response would be to have a flash mob go up to each member of the Phelps picketers, and ask, one at a time, "Pardon me, do you have any Grey Poupon?"

Hundreds upon hundreds of times.

Or organize a zombie march right around there. Or SCA fighter practice. Or both.

Depending how much snow there is, get all the local kids to make snowmen, around the protesters.

I think that Phelps is the kind of person who can only be answered with surrealism.

[nex0s.livejournal.com]

I think that Phelps is the kind of person who can only be answered with surrealism.

*giggles madly*

Or organize a zombie march right around there. Or SCA fighter practice. Or both.

At the same time!!! Zombie fight practice!!!

Interestingly enough, I remember Phelps and his crew in Cambridge. I lived only 1 block from City Hall at the time, so naturally I was on the street to show my support.

There were about 10 Phelps folk... and about 1000 supporters - if not more. It amused me greatly to see how outnumbered they were. They yelled for a bit, and then finally put down their signs and stomped away looking rather dejected at all the kissing, champagne drinking, hugging, dancing and singing going on around them.

N.

[gtrout.livejournal.com]

At the same time!!! Zombie fight practice!!!

That was my first thought, too.

The wall-of-volunteers-wearing-ginormous-angel-wings comes to mind, if only because it would be in keeping with the play, but I do love the surrealism idea. So I'd have the SCA fight off a zombie horde under the beatific gaze of a samba line of gloriously smiley Carmen Miranda impersonators. Pile on the wacky thickly enough, the Phelps clan would just vanish into the mob.

[ricevermicelli.livejournal.com]

I was at that too! With the world's cheeriest riot cops - a bunch of guys who were getting hazard pay to stand around in full gear because there were rumors that the KKK might show, but who realized very early in the evening that their entire job could be accomplished by walking up to people and politely asking them to please sing showtunes on the *lawn*, not the walk. I'm quite fond of the Cambridge PD sometimes.

The Phelps crew was outnumbered, surrounded, and ruthlessly out-partied. I'm not at all sure that strategy would work in Rivka's case (unfortunately), but I do like the pledge-a-protester idea.

[kazoogrrl.livejournal.com]

Check out hons, some ideas are being tossed about.

Also - stage a kiss-in as a counter protest.

[micheinnz.livejournal.com]

I'd try to find a way of ignoring them in such a manner that it was perfectly clear to them what I was doing.

(And hah, iTunes, giving me "Personal Jesus" by Johnny Cash as a soundtrack for this comment!)

[erbie.livejournal.com]

Set up a Hate-A-Thon. Make big signs announcing that for every minute the protesters are there, a certain dollar amount will be donated to gay rights causes. Solicit passersby to contribute to the fund. This has been used to great success with them in the past. They have turned around and left at the sight of the people doing it. :)

[eacole72.livejournal.com]

The folks in Laramie, WY, had their own answer to him, which they talk about in the play.

Best answer I've seen (I live 50 miles from the Phreddies' compound) was at a local university where a group of students ringed the Phreddies and pulled out the university paper to read it, such that the Phreddies weren't visible from outside of it.

I definitely agree with supporting the production. When that same university's theater department put on Bent, the students were having trouble. At least, until the Phreddies showed up to protest at opening night. They had to add two performances to accommodate everyone who wanted to attend after that.

[anotheranon.livejournal.com]

Having seen their behavior in my neck of the woods, I am strongly tempted to suggest projectile vomiting, because that's how I felt.

In all seriousness, go right past them and attend the play is possibly the best / most plausible reaction I've read.

[ratphooey.livejournal.com]

Every time Phelps has been in Philly lately, the counter-protesters have outnumbered his by large margins. Which is very satisfying.

[wcg.livejournal.com]

As you mentioned earlier, you *are* an excellent shot. Still, I wouldn't want to have to visit you in jail.

I think there's something to be said for John Barnstead's approach of earnestly engaging such people in conversation for as long as you can possibly hold their attention. Extra bonus points awarded if you manage to completely untrack them.

[irismoonlight.livejournal.com]

I love the fund raising idea, although I don't know where in your *copious* free time you'd have a chance to organize THAT.

Not that you have time for this, either, but I'd print up some quick and easy signs (just regular paper) that say "God loves, not hates," "No one who attacks the grieving families can call themselves faithful," "Those who attack grieving families follow Satan," "Give Phelps a psychiatrist, not a media moment" ... or whatever you prefer. Put up a collage in a window that faces the street and make extras so when people ask you, you can give them some. Lining your block to the school with them would be lovely.

[stevendj.livejournal.com]

Michael Moore once hired cheerleaders to perform, accompanied by "Stop in the Name of Love", outside a white supremacist compound.

[chiefted]

Put up a semi big sign in your window that say
"Trespassers will be violated" just to see the
reaction you would get.

Oh and that pledge thing too.

[wanderingaengus.livejournal.com]

The most satisfactory, and thoroughly justified, response would land you in jail.

Thinking about it, I imagine the Phelps clan is pretty inured to all sorts of abuse (and I'm sure they're proof against reason and love). The best bet I can come up with is taking some gay porn, photoshopping in big daddy Fred's face, and posting that up all over the neighborhood.

Sure, it's not a very constructive response, but I bet if one of them takes a swing at you the cops will be all over it.

[brooksmoses]

Heh -- a laptop, a digital camera, and a large-format printer, and you could make it up on the spot with the faces of the protesters, and put it on picket signs to carry around. Shouldn't be that hard to get a 10-minute turnaround time from photo to picket sign.

Not that it's what I'd do, but a person could.

[lerryn.livejournal.com]

Find some pastors and lay members of more gay-friendly churches to hold a counter-protest staging readings of biblical passages promting tolerance.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

It's a hard question. You can ignore them. You can counter-protest, either in public while they're there or behind the scenes using them as a catalyst.

I like the behind the scenes protest suggestions.

B

[obafugakum.livejournal.com]

about a year ago same thing happened in our neck of the woods, and frankly, their protest was a bit underwhelming. most of the local community and families got very riled up about him coming, all sorts of counter protest plans were made, but when Phelps's crowd actually showed up, it was a bit of a let down. they aren't just hate-mongers...they're lame hate-mongers.

I think counter protests are good, but I also think it's good to get as many people to go to the production as possible. it demonstrates support of the play and the school. and the one I went to was the best high school production of any play I think I've ever seen.

[huladavid.livejournal.com]

Well, some may find this odd coming from ol' Acty-Upy-Queer-National me, but there's something to be said for ignoring Phelps & co.

There used to be a group called "The Destroyers" who used to come to the University of Minnesota once a year (they might still be, for all I know). They'd stand in front of the administration building and harange people, gathering a good sized crowd, who'd insult them right back.

Now, I was raised by people similar to these people, so when The Destroyers where on campus, I'd just avoid that part of the grounds.

Also it seemed to me that these folks were only convinced of the worth of their faith when they had a crowd of heathens publicly abusing them, and I really didn't need to be exposed to that kinda crap .

(On the other hand, if you can find people mentally strong enough to do this, I think getting a bunch of people together to just stare at 'em. Sort'a like a bunch of Jane Goodalls observing chimps in the wild...)

[huladavid.livejournal.com]

I may have mentioned this before, but have you read The Whole World Was Watching: Living in the Light of Matthew Shepard It's by Romaine Patterson, the woman who came up with the "Angels Defence Squad" (can't recall what they really called themselves).

[kip-w.livejournal.com]

Counterpledging sounds good.

Now, if you absolutely have to hold up signs, I'd say make signs that look like theirs and are mostly nonsense. "GOD HATES BAGS" "GOD HATES CHEESE" "GOD HATES HATE" "GOD HATES NOUNS" "GARFIELD HATES MONDAYS" "DOG HATES RAGS" "MAN BITES DOG" -- surround them and render them invisible.

Anything involving SCA fighting would doubtless be joyfully taken by Phelps as proof that they are being attacked and persecuted.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

I think I need a "GOD HATES HATE" sign. Thanks.

[mjlayman.livejournal.com]

Lyrics from Steve Earle's "Jerusalem":

Well maybe I'm only dreamin' and maybe I'm just a fool
But I don't remember learnin' how to hate in Sunday school

[silmaril.livejournal.com]

I like both the counterpledging idea and the surrealist nonsense signs idea. Maybe they're like boggarts---laughter may finish them.

[tchemgrrl.livejournal.com]

A friend of mine taught me the laughter trick in high school, and it works amazingly well on the Phelpsish people I see on campus from time to time.

You look at them, do a big obvious double take, and give the biggest, knee-slapping minute of laughter you can manage under the circumstances. It doesn't stop them, but there are always a few that look very confused and disconcerted--responding to them with anger only riles up their martyrdom radar, but being someone else's joke is embarrassing and not what they signed up for.

[johnpalmer.livejournal.com]

I was just thinking of that. It's even better if you can engage them in conversation, too.

"No, really, I'm sorry for laughing. Please, go on, God hates us because *why*?"

"Yeah, and?"

"Yeah, and?"

"Y...y... BWAHAHAHAHAHA! Oh ho ho ho ho ho ho... no, no, I'm sorry, give me a minute, I'm just trying to imagine Jesus saying this. Yeah, and?"

[sistercoyote.livejournal.com]

Set up a counter-protest, where people agree to donate $X for every minute the Phelpses are there to the local GLBT youth center or other appropriate charity.

[mizchalmers.livejournal.com]

Angel Action (http://www.eatromaine.com/angel_action/angelaction.html) is pretty cool.