The Triangle

Issue date: 3/12/10 Section: Ed-Op

Media Credit: Dan Rosenstrauch Contra Costa Times/MCT Campus Vicky Phelps, a member of the Westboro Baptist Church, holds a sign in Topeka, Kansas in an effort to protest against same-sex marriages.

The Westboro Baptist Church. By name alone, it sounds unassuming and inoffensive; after all, there are copious varieties of religious affiliations and organizations that co-exist in this world, and in large part, they co-exist peacefully. But what about an independent Baptist church that is more known for its hateful messages and incessant protesting than for any kind of actual religious doctrine? An organization whose Web site is called "God Hates Fags?" When an organization with such an indistinct, inoffensive name is discovered to have such horrifically cruel intent, it becomes impossible for concerned citizens to let the WBC continue on in its homophobic mission without making their intolerance widely known.

The WBC was founded in 1955 by Fred Phelps, and operates out of Topeka, Kan. The group pickets regularly in Topeka, mainly protesting at funerals of gay people, particularly victims of gay-bashing and murder. The Phelps family and their followers have even gone so far as to picket an appliance store for its sale of Swedish vacuum cleaners. A transaction the church viewed as supportive of gays due to Sweden's inclusion of sexual orientation in a list of groups whose rights are protected against persecution. In instances such as these, it seems that the WBC is grasping at straws to find anything remotely gay-friendly to protest. Often, however, the organization protests events that are crucially important to the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Questioning, and Allied community.

The church frequently protests presentations of the play "The Laramie Project," a production based on the 1998 murder of gay student Matthew Shepard - whose funeral they also protested. On April 1, the WBC will be gracing Philadelphia with its presence when it protests Temple University's productions of "The Laramie Project" and "Rent." In response to this scheduled picket, Temple's Queer Student Union, Student Government Association, and College Democrats organizations have collaborated to stage a large counter-protest for the duration of the WBC's picketing. The event, which Temple has dubbed the "Phelps-a-Thon," will serve as a fundraiser for LGBTQA programming on Temple's campus and for the Matthew Shepard Foundation. For every minute that the WBC is on campus, Temple is requesting people to pledge donations. At the conclusion of the Phelps-a-Thon, Temple will calculate the amount of money raised and send a thank-you note to the WBC, expressing the university's gratitude for the contributions the church (unintentionally) made to LGBTQA students at Temple University.

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