Westboro comes to Albany

[xdaemon]

So, Westboro Baptist Church is coming to Albany to protest Albany High School's production of The Laramie Project. Even better, the kids at Albany High chose to do The Laramie Project specifically to annoy Westboro after Westboro came to Albany to protest something else 8 months ago

Comments

[arathreel]

It really pisses me off, honestly. Hate is a strong word, but I can officially say I hate this church. The Laramie Project is a fabulous play (I read it for college and our college performed it) and what makes it worse is that it is based on a real life story...

These people make it seem like other people's lives are just a joke and not to be taken seriously, and that really pisses me off.

[blue_estro]

My understanding is that a lot of the Westboro church travel funding has been from winning lawsuits against people who lose their temper and attack them. (Loud offensive protests at funerals chanting that $loved-one deserved to die because they were sinners/tools of satan/fags. Some bereaved friend or family member eventually beats the crap out of someone and gets sued for damages. A good chunk of the Phelps clan are lawyers, so really the costs to sue are negligible.)

Good for Albany High students.

[needa]

*ding*

You beat me to it. Yep, that's the business model. Unfortunately for my friends, the WBC is within Calontir, and a number of my friends here know them. Mostly to great dismay, although there's a high proportion of WBC nice folk with an attitude of "I'm a sheep and don't know how to escape the cult^H^H^H^Hmeadow!"

[tomatoe333]

The sadder part is that Fred Phelps got his start as a civil rights lawyer.

[blue_estro]

Yeah, I am too lazy to go back to Wikipedia and check right at this moment, but I think he won an award from the NAACP (before his insane religious transition)

[c1]

Post a sign outside: for every hour they protest, they help raise $$$ in hourly donations for GLBT causes. (Of course, you'll need to find people willing to give a fiver or whatever for each hour of WBC's protesting, but that shouldn't be that hard.) When they've packed up and left, tally the amount of money you raised, and mail a lovely thank-you card to WBC, thanking them for their tireless efforts supporting your fund-raising campaign. When this happens EVERY time they protest, they'll shut up.

IIRC, when organizers of a production of the Laramie Project tried this in Reading, MA, this past spring, Phelps gave up after 90 minutes.

[blue_estro]

A Planned Parenthood (in Texas, I think) started a similar Sponsor a Protester type thing where people pledged donations on a protester per day plan. Several other PPs have taken up the idea (this is one I found: http://www.plannedparenthood.org/ppsp/pledge-picket-17427.htm)

It is brilliantly win-win. Either the protesters go away or they get donations.

[howlgirl]

They threatened to do that in Alameda last year. They were a no show.

Chickens!

[nohwhere_man]

Ya, I was kinda looking forward to the protests.

[nohwhere_man]

WBC went to my high school last spring. A bunch of my sacred harp singing friends went to go sing hymns at them. IIRC they also did a collection for GLBT causes, too.