The Westboro Baptist Church, the Kansas based hate group that has gained media attention nationwide for its protests at military funerals, mainstream churches and Jewish groups, has announced plans to picket the 2010 San Diego Comic-Con International.
The sold out four day event, held at the San Diego Convention Center, opens Thursday, July 22nd, and is expected to draw over 130,000 fans, making it the largest event of its type in the western hemisphere. Their contract with San Diego is set to expire in two years, and other cities have been aggressively vying to get future Comic-Cons moved to their locales.
Comic-Con is a San Diego tradition, dating back to 1970, when it was founded by Obecian Shel Dorf and other San Diegans. (For a perspective on the early days of Comic-Con go here. Shel Dorf died last year, see his obituary here.)
Originally showcasing comic books, science fiction/fantasy and film/television and related popular arts, the gathering has grown to include a much larger range of pop culture, including as horror, anime, manga, animation, toys, collectible card games, video games, webcomics, and fantasy novels.
Many of the participants in Comic-Con are involved in role-playing, also known as cosplay, creating elaborate costumes based on characters from science fiction, anime and other fantasy art forms. Signs giving directions in Klingon, an invented language that grew out of the Star Trek tv series, have been posted in nearby city transit stops in recognition of the popularity of role playing for attendees.
Thus we have the potential for bizarre confrontations between members of the Westboro congregation (whose members certainly qualify as freaks in the own right) and Comic-Con role players. Just imagine… Jesus freaks surrounded by vampires and X-man characters… the possibilities are just endless. (And if it’s any consolation for Comic-Con attendees, the protesters are well known for fleeing at the first sign of hostility, so you don’t need to fear them.)
The group intends to saunter over (about 1:15) to the San Diego Convention Center after picketing a speech by “adulterous Al Gore” at the Manchester Grand Hyatt.
Why would these people picket Comic-Con? Here’s the reasoning from the Westboro website (GodHatesFags.Com):
Are you kidding?! If these people would spend even some of the energy that they spend on these comic books, reading the Bible, well no high hopes here. They have turned comic book characters into idols, and worship them they do! The destruction of this nation is imminent – so start calling on Batman and Superman now, see if they can pull you from the mess that you have created with all your silly idolatry.
{ 23 comments… read them below or add one }
Best way to deal with these loonies is to start a fundraiser that states for every minute they hang around, a cause such as funds for fallen vets or gay marriage gets X number of dollars.
Use their idiocy and insanity against them for a good cause. Pretty soon when they know that their presence is helping causes not in their interest, they’ll crawl back under the rock they were spurned from.
Hey Bill, what time is it in Italy? Plus how’s that “OBcean Musician Plays in Italian Castle” going?
Well OK…I’ll string some stuff toegether…. :D
The only cause Phelps has interest in serving is his own publicity. If you think raising money for a charity he supposedly disagrees with would dissuade him, you’re sorely mistaken. If the action got his name mentioned in another news article, he’d be plenty happy.
True, but might as well make a cottage industry out of his filthy circus. It’d be like this big rotten circus that would roll upon a town like a rotten tomato, all stinky and decrepit…
*Great idea!* Let Phelps and the Travelers have an “encounter”….that’d be a trip!
Let’s get WBC to come to OB! Whaddya all say….can we give them a big ol’ OB “COME ON IN!!!”????
:D It’ll be fun, I promise. And they won’t be there long. They have an agenda. Frank, you make the calls, I’ll make the flyers.
HAHAHAHAHAAAA
If you ever read anything about the life story of Fred Phelps, you might agree with my opinion that I think it would make a helluva good movie, in a dark sense.
He was a two time Kansas State golden gloves boxing champion, reportedly knocking his opponent out cold in the first round one year.
He was a champion of civil rights for blacks, taking on cases pro bono and at one time a third of all the civil rights cases in Kansas were filed by his office.
Yet according to his sister he used to play a trick on his clients, he would use the term “DN” in his language with them as if it were legal terminology, even getting them to say it themselves while testifying as witnesses on the stand in their own cases. The term stood for “Dumb ******”.
He’s got so many contradictions in his life it’s nearly funny, it’s hard to see why anyone would take himm seriously and join his congregation but apparantly he’s a powerful personality.
Maybe similar to Larry Flynt, ever see a televised interview of him? He’s got this “who’s your daddy” thing going on and he can charm the hell out of women. Creepy but still you got to respect it in its own weird way.
I think God, if he exists, might just hate Fred.
What a great insight John. You’re dead on with the Larry Flynt parallel; I just invoked the name of Flynt on the Facebook page.
Frank probably knows several attorneys who would defend these people’s right to freedom of speech and freedom of assembly, huh. People died so they can spread their filth.
And, lest not to be overlooked…they are prime example of why inbreeding is never a good idea. You can’t tell me there’s not an Auntie-sister in there or a Cousin-brother.
“And, lest not to be overlooked…they are prime example of why inbreeding is never a good idea. You can’t tell me there’s not an Auntie-sister in there or a Cousin-brother.”
In Europe it’s called “royalty”, you know. We call em hillbillies, and every halloween they get together and “pump kin”.
Maybe that is evident in the fact that GW Bush has more direct lineage to European royalty than any president in history-
too funny.
I watched a documentary on those whack-jobs, it was stunning. (Fall from Grace, available for streaming on Netflix) One thing that stood out was that most of the people that actually attend his sermons are family members. I wonder if his other supporters would bother if they actually sat through one of his ugly, hate filled sermons? That sure isn’t any kind of Christianity that makes sense to me.
You ever see Michael Moore’s piece on them where he takes a bus full of gay guys and follows them around the country? I think it was for Mad TV? One of the funniest things I’ve ever seen. If I find a link I’ll post it.
Okay here it is. (most of us familiar with WBC have seen this, but it’s a don’t miss if you haven’t) the show was called the Awful Truth.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ra_fAYl4Th4&feature=related
“riding aboard 16,000 lbs of hot pink steel and fiberglass…. the SODOMOBILE”
This is a speech Fred’s estranged son gave about growing up in the family. It’s an incredible read….and depressing as hell. I think the world a guy like Fred Phelps fears worst is one where he shows up and preaches his hate and no one pays him any attention, cause that’s really all his picketing events are about.
Epic Win! Jason Beats the WBC with a Fund-Raiser!
Awesome, thanks aGGona for posting the link.
(in my best British accent)… What has God got against cigarettes…governor?
Isn’t it “gov – nah!”?
How can I get this guy to picket my shop? I could use the publicity.
Maybe start selling “please don’t feed the gay bums” stickers? You never know WHO might picket…. LOL.
(noting that all the gay friends I’ve had all made more money than I and most of their straight colleagues, and it’s not well known but WW2 was probably won on the western front solely on the endeavors of one gay man, Alan Turling, an autistic genius who designed and built the machine that daily cracked Enigma codes. So not many to feed anyhoo)
that’s Alan Turing. Also one of the fathers of computer science and artificial intelligence: google “turing test”
OOPs! I’d love to claim “typo” but I just plain had it wrong. Thanks for the correction. Guy was a genius, that’s one thing we can be sure about.
For reference here is a picture of the “Turing bombe” the machines they ultimately built 200 of: http://pippick.com/reviews/worldfaceoff/Rearopn1.jpg
I’m a Christian who is against homosexuality, not the people who practice it. “Hate groups” are not representative of the Christian faith. And picketing a Comic-Con is one of the stupidest things I have ever heard of.
Don’t worry, we know Phelps and his ilk are a special kind of crazy.
thats real childish people from another country are trying to blow us up and all u hav to say is god laughs and thank god for dead soldiers