Tag Archives: Westboro Baptist Church

What’s Brewing: Whacko Thursday with Westboro Baptist, Cindy Jacobs and Michele Bachmann

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Your weekday morning blend from Instant Tea:

Michele Bachmann

1. Calling her a “fag hag,” a spokeswoman for Westboro Baptist Church announced that the Phelps clan will picket the funeral of actress Elizabeth Taylor. Margie J. Phelps, daughter of the church’s leader Fred Phelps, said Taylor “joined Michael Jackson and Heath Ledger in hell.”

2. Our old friend Cindy Jacobs of Red Oak, Texas, preached at Sarah Palin’s home church earlier this month and said she hopes to have 500,000 “intercessors” mobilized for the 2012 elections “to shift this nation to righteousness and justice.” Watch video above.

3. Speaking in Iowa on Wednesday, likely GOP presidential candidate Michele Bachmann praised voters for ousting state Supreme Court judges who legalized same-sex marriage, calling them “black-robed monsters.” (UPDATE: Bachmann’s adviser’s announced today that she is likely to form a presidential exploratory committee.)

—  John Wright

America, the home of the whopper

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Westboro-horiz
LYING LIARS | Decency goes out the window when the Westboro Baptist group comes to town for a protest.

Supreme Court’s ruling in Westboro Baptist case doesn’t consider veracity, common decency

Sometimes people continue telling lies even after they have been shown to be liars. I guess they figure that if they change their tune, they will look like the liars they are, or worse, lose control of the narrative.

The narrative is the story that the press and the public already have in their collective psyches, so anything that goes against it is usually dismissed. Controlling narratives is what lying is all about.

Habaerman.Hardy.NEW
Hardy Habaerman Flagging Left

Take Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council. Tony keeps trotting out the old line that pedophiles are mostly gay men.

It doesn’t matter that almost all the major professional organizations in social work and psychology have debunked that lie long ago, he keeps telling it.

His latest whopper was in defense of the federal Defense of Marriage Act, and using discredited research and twisted figures, he justified his statements, aligning to the Family Research Council’s narrative precisely.

More importantly, he speaks while holding a nice soft leather Bible in his hand. The message is none too subtle: It’s the truth, “because it is in the Bible,” and holding the Bible makes him look “trustworthy.”

It doesn’t always work.

Take the “godly” folks from the Westboro Baptist Church. They can hold all the Bibles they want, and they still look like loonies.

My bet is that that’s exactly what they want to look like. Their narrative is, “We are religious zealots bent on agitating everyone,” and they stick to it.

They are picketing soldiers’ funerals for the sole purpose of getting people angry at them.

I understand that may be the way they fund their activities, from litigation against those who they have angered to violence. It’s like waving the red flag in the face of a bull and then suing the bull when you get hit.

Both Westboro Baptist and Mr. Perkins fall into the same category, and yet the Supreme Court says they have the right to free speech.

Now I am a big proponent of free speech. Without it I would be left writing away with no one to read it.

The problem comes when free speech is abused, and that is what the WBC and the FRC are doing.

These folks have found the loophole in democracy that lets you say just about anything you want as long as you have sufficient legal representation and parse your words.

Now in the interest of being fair, none of this is a personal attack on anyone, I am merely musing about the sad state of what passes for free speech in our country. (Note the careful parsing of words?)

Apparently, it’s become OK to quote from studies your own organization creates specifically for the purpose of “proving a point.” Apparently, it’s OK to make blanket statements about groups with no proof whatsoever, as long as you don’t go attacking specific people.

Apparently, it’s OK to scream just about anything as long as you don’t go personally attacking an individual.

Therefore, I think it’s about time our side took note and began our own narrative that goes something like this:

“Heterosexuals are dangerous people. More than 90 percent of all crimes are committed by self-confessed heterosexuals.

“Overwhelming numbers of heterosexual men abuse women making them patently unfit to be in marriages.

“The vast majority of child neglect cases are directly attributable to heterosexual couples, and that, therefore, makes them the worst candidates for parents or guardians.

“What’s worse, heterosexuals are responsible for more rapes than all LGBT people combined.

“On the religious front it’s even worse. Christians are the most violent people in our country. The vast majority of criminals who identify their religion are Christian.

“It’s a very dangerous group and we must be suspicious of them at every turn.”

Do I have proof of this? Some of it is indeed true, simply because of the demographics of the population. The rest is conjecture.

But I have a right to say it according to the Supreme Court, so why not?

Well, here’s why not:

I could stoop to the despicable practices of the people who seek to deny us our rights; I could legitimately make most of the claims in my rant above. But there is an important item missing from that, and that is plain decency.

Decency has been lost in our discourse these days. It is the principal that says the simple fact I can do something doesn’t mean I should.

It is the principal that says sometimes, “It’s none of my business what other folk do.”

Too bad that principal I learned as a “basic family value” has been lost.

Want fries with those whoppers?
Hardy Haberman is a longtime local LGBT activist and a member of Stonewall Democrats of Dallas. His blog is at http://dungeondiary.blogspot.com.

This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition March 11, 2011.

 

 

—  Kevin Thomas

Shunda K debuts new video and set to play SXSW

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Now that Shunda K has gone solo, she’s making sure she has a heavy impact on the industry and that looks like she’s starting with her first video from her new solo album The Most Wanted. This is her contribution to Dan Savage’s It Gets Better campaign, but it’s a lot heavier than just giving viewers the message.

Shunda K’s “I’m Da Best” clip is a direct assault on the Westboro Baptist Church (WIKI) and concerns a young boy who is harassed by his peers, faces even more tension at home and how, with the help of his faith and the support of his role model Shunda K, he overcomes these obstacles to stand tall. The video is Shunda K’s contribution to the ongoing “It Gets Better” Project (itgetsbetter.org) started by famed syndicated sex columnist Dan Savage as a place where young people who are lesbian, gay, bi, or trans can see how love and happiness can be a reality in their future.

You can catch Shunda K at SXSW in a couple of week at the Art Disaster event at the Beauty Bar March 15. If anything, she’s one of the first real gay acts I’ve found at SXSW this year. I’m sure there are more, but damn if its hard to pinpoint those smaller bands.

—  Rich Lopez

Supreme Court rules in favor of Westboro Baptist

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Phelps pickets from a July 2010 Dallas appearance

By an 8-1 decision, the Supreme Court upheld the right of Westboro Baptist Church to picket military funerals, according to Associated Press.

From the decision:

“Speech is powerful. It can stir people to action, move them to tears of both joy and sorrow, and — as it did here — inflict great pain. On the facts before us, we cannot react to that pain by punishing the speaker.”

The father of a Marine killed in Iraq in 2006 sued the Phelps clan for picketing at the funeral. He called the group’s actions targeted harassment and invasion of privacy. The purpose of the picketing was to purposely inflict pain.

In a jury trial, the father was awarded $11 million that was reduced to $5 million by the judge. On appeal, the ruling was overturned and the judgment thrown out. This ruling upholds the appeals court.

Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the opinion. The dissenting vote came from Justice Samuel Alito.

A group of 21 news organizations filed a brief siding with the Phelps group based on preserving free speech rights.

—  David Taffet

What’s Brewing: Westboro Baptist edition

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Your weekday morning blend from Instant Tea:

1. A group of hackers known as Anonymous threatens to destroy websites belonging to the anti-gay Westboro Baptist Church if the church doesn’t end its protests in 2011.

2. The church responds by telling the “anonymous crybaby hackers” to “Bring It.”(Flier above.)

3. It turns out the church actually made up the whole thing as a publicity stunt. (Press release below.)

—  John Wright

Dallas Holocaust Museum finds piece of gay art, marks International Holocaust Remembrance Day

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When I was working on my story on gays in the Holocaust, I asked Nanette Fodell at the Dallas Holocaust Museum if they have any pieces relating to the subject in their archives. The museum archivist found one piece.

The piece was painted in 1984 by William D. Kaddatz (1953–1989) and was purchased in a garage sale and later donated to the museum. It depicts two men wearing the pink triangle.

The card under the painting reads:

Treblinka

I saw him often in the parks in Berlin and though we were intimate we never used names or even spoke at all. I saw him just the other day bit it was far from being the same. He was standing in another enclosure the SS built for the care and feeding of the Domestic German Jews [sic]. Dogs are treated better. It was bitterly cold and had wrapped rags around his neck in a more or less futile effort to stay even a bit warmer. We all did it and still a few froze to death in their sleep. We just strive now I suppose to remember better days. I know its [sic] not anticipation of a future because they no longer exist.

Today is International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in 1945. To mark the day, a candlelight ceremony will be at the museum at 6 p.m. Bring a traditional yahrzeit candle (Kroger on Cedar Springs has them in the kosher food section) or they will supply candles.

Museum officials sent a special welcome to the LGBT community noting the support the community gave them last July when Westboro Baptist Church began a weekend of picketing in Dallas at the museum.

Dallas Holocaust Museum/Center for Education and Tolerance, 211 North Record St. Jan 27 at 6-7 p.m. The museum is located at West End Station on the Red, Green, Blue and Orange lines. Parking is available at Houston Street and Pacific Avenue).

—  David Taffet

The Nooner: Leppert unlikely to run; 1st gay museum opens; R.I. marriage fight heats up

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Mayor Tom Leppert appears in the Alan Ross Texas Freedom Parade in 2007.

Your lunchtime quickie from Instant Tea:

• It’s “all but certain” that Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert won’t seek re-election, according to The Dallas Morning News, and Councilwoman Angela Hunt says she’s considering a run.

• Westboro Baptist Church says it has decided not to picket 9-year-old Tucson shooting victim’s funeral after all, but it will picket that of federal judge killed in attack.

• First LGBT history museum opens in San Francisco.

• Marriage fight heats up in Rhode Island.

• Jewish groups condemn Sarah Palin‘s use of “blood libel.”

—  John Wright

What’s Brewing: Sarah Palin, Westboro Baptist Church, The Advocate’s gayest cities

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1. Sarah Palin released a video statement (above) this morning in response to the Tucson shooting, saying her decision to put rifle crosshairs on a map over Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords’ district had absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with the incident at all. How could it have, right? But why so defensive then? And what better way for Palin to address a shooting that targeted Giffords, who’s Jewish, than by using an anti-semitic metaphor? Palin says those who link the tragedy to her violent rhetoric are committing “blood libel” — which refers to an accusation from the Middle Ages that Jews killed Christian children to use their blood to make matzoh for Passover. Palin is right, this incident was more about mental illness than rhetoric — until you consider the fact that the ones spewing the rhetoric are mentally ill. (Politico)

2. The governor of Arizona signed emergency legislation to prohibit Westboro Baptist Church from picketing within 300 feet of the funeral for a 9-year-old girl who was killed in the Tucson shooting. The legislation was initiated by openly gay State Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Tucson, who said this: “I’m a strong advocate of the First Amendment and the bottom line is this, Fred Phelps and his group of people can still spew their hate if they want. They just don’t get to do it close to the families that are grieving. They have to be farther away.” (ABC 15)

3. The Advocate lists Minneapolis as the gayest city in America, and Texas is shut out of the top 15. Have we mentioned that The Advocate sucks?

—  John Wright

Thanks for an amazing year at RCD

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LGBT, HIV communities should be prepared for new challenges in 2011

What a year! Who could have predicted all the twists and turns it has taken, or the events that galvanized our country and united our communities?

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HELL FREEZES OVER  | A member of the Phelps clan from Westboro Baptist Church protests outside Resource Center Dallas in July. A counterprotest fundraiser organized by RCD netted more than $11,000 to buy a new ice maker for the agency’s hot lunch program. (David Taffet/Dallas Voice)

So much happened in 2010 involving Resource Center Dallas, and none of it could have occurred without the strong support of the HIV/AIDS and LGBT communities in North Texas.

Looking back, I am filled with gratitude and wanted to take this opportunity to say thank you. Here’s what you helped us accomplish:

• Dallas Area Rapid Transit expanded its nondiscrimination policy to include gender identity, in the wake of news stories about the discrimination experienced by a transgender bus driver;

• RCD joined forces with the Kaiser Family Foundation, Dallas County Health and Human Services, and AIDS ARMS to bring the “Greater than AIDS” campaign to Dallas, highlighting services available to people living with HIV/AIDS and promoting HIV prevention;

• DFW International Airport expanded its nondiscrimination policy to include sexual orientation and gender identity, following a request from RCD and Fairness Fort Worth;

• A fundraising counterprotest against a “church” from Kansas brought out hundreds of community members in a rainstorm and netted more than $11,000 to buy a new ice maker for our HIV/AIDS clients’ hot lunch program;

• Following advocacy by RCD, Lambda Legal, LULAC and a coalition of other community groups, the Dallas Independent School District adopted a first-of-its-kind-in-Texas comprehensive, enumerative antibullying policy that covers not only LGBT students, but all students;

• We partnered with 138 community groups, including the Tarrant County Health Department and the Urban League of Greater Dallas, in the “Stomp Out Syphilis” campaign; administered over 3,100 HIV tests; and delivered HIV prevention messages to more than 8,600 people;

• We completed diversity training for all 700-plus employees of the Texas Alcoholic Beverage commission statewide — the first time a state agency conducted this training for all its employees;

• And, we served more than 21,500 weekday lunches and provided about 29,000 visits to our food pantry for our HIV/AIDS clients in 2010 — distributing more than 350 tons of groceries.

These accomplishments, funded while the economy remained sluggish and both the need and demand for our services continued to increase, show the generous nature and support of our communities and allies. Each and every one of you who got involved deserves recognition and a deep, sincere thank you — especially the more than 1,100 people who volunteered at RCD in 2010.

As we stand on the cusp of another year, we do not know what opportunities for change will be presented. Clearly, the political landscape has shifted, and the new realities in Washington and Austin will provide opportunities and challenges for the LGBT and HIV communities.

One key area — funding for ADAP (AIDS drug assistance programs), medical care and social services for people living with HIV — will be an issue for Texas lawmakers already grappling with a large budget deficit.

The movement toward marriage equality will continue in the federal courts, as well as state legislatures. Even though “don’t ask, don’t tell” is coming to an end, work needs to be done so that gay and lesbian members of the military can serve openly — and, there remains a prohibition on openly transgender members of the armed services.

Over the past year, the LGBT and HIV communities responded to issues as they developed. We made phone calls, wrote letters, spoke truth to power, and rallied. We donated our time to organizations quietly and without thought of recognition. We sent our dollars in to provide economic support to organizations that share our values, focus and interests.

What 2010 teaches us is that we must be ready to meet whatever challenges we encounter. Resource Center Dallas will be there, engaged on behalf of not only our communities but all North Texans. We’ll continue to develop partnerships across the region, because the issues of HIV, discrimination and equality don’t respect city limits or county lines. And, we’ll be turning to the communities again for your help and support.

Playwright and author Thornton Wilder reminds us, “We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures.”

Throughout this year, you and our work with and for you kept us fully alive and conscious of our shared treasure. For that, and the opportunity you offer us to serve you and our communities, Resource Center and I say thank you. And Happy New Year!

Rafael McDonnell is strategic communications and programs manager at Resource Center Dallas.

This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition December 31, 2010.

—  Kevin Thomas

Nate Phelps: Escaping the darkness

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Son of infamous anti-gay crusader Fred Phelps offers a glimpse of what life was like growing up on the inside of the Westboro Baptist cult

Renee Baker  |  Contributing Writer renee@renee-baker.com

Nate Phelps
Nate Phelps

Nate Phelps has a unique identity, but an identity many of us can relate to on different levels. He’s a parent; he’s a partner; he has kids, and he has to come out of the closet regarding his family life.

But Phelps is not gay. Instead, you could say he comes from a family life that is spiritually haunting — one led by his father, Fred Phelps Sr., the infamous pastor of Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas.

Phelps, who is now estranged from his father, says he often feels “pulled in two directions.” On one hand, he wants to explain to the world how his birth family evolved into what it is. On the other, he has found from experience that people get uncomfortable learning who he is, and he has to “reassure them” that it is okay to criticize his father’s views.
Phelps Sr., at age 80, is well known for attacking the gay community and operating the website GodHatesFags.com. The WBC launched a protest at the Resource Center Dallas in July of this year, leading to a counter-protest that raised a record-breaking $11,000, according to RCD spokesperson Rafael McDonnell.

McDonnell said of the protest, “What struck me is how the entire community came together, saying, ‘We are not going to allow this in our neighborhood.’”

The younger Phelps, now 51, was not surprised by the event. Counter-protests are common, and even satirical filmmaker Michael Moore has been to Topeka with his Sodom Mobile to confront Phelps Sr.

“I thought my father was going to punch him at any second,” Nate Phelps recalled.

It is a telling statement, as Nate Phelps said his father used to beat his 13 children, often with a long piece of wood — his Biblical rod. Nate’s brother Mark and sister Dot are also estranged from the family.

“Our childhood was full of abuse and violence,” Nate Phelps said, “and that was our sense of what normal was.”

He said his father taught them they were all “hell-bound sinners” and they could not say enough prayers to be saved. He said his father was “profoundly critical, destructive and violent towards us.” And he said the worst part was that his father was so strong and manipulative, that Nate began to “internalize it and believe it” himself.

As an example, Nate Phelps recalls an early memory when his father chopped off his mother’s hair. “When he took those blades to my mother’s head, he was making a powerful assertion that he had absolute control over her very salvation. So ingrained were these beliefs that I remember fearing that, by cutting her hair, my father had condemned her to eternal damnation,” Nate has said in a speech.

Nate Phelps subsequently went through two significant periods of counseling in his life, the first period focusing on the religious abuse. He found a counselor with a theological background and, he said, it exposed him to more information about religion and theism.

Ultimately, Nate found solace in an atheistic outlook. But in the background of his mind, he said, he will have to fight the religious programming for the rest of his life,  those expectations of walking in his father’s footsteps.

“The logical mind can dispute the expectations,” he said, “but the emotions — that is another thing all together.”

Nate, who has three children of his own, entered therapy a second time when he recognized that he “overreacted to events.” This time he was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder resulting from the extreme violence he experienced at the hands of his father.

With a deep sense of anxiety, Nate spent two weeks in a mental hospital trying to find peace and answers.  But he said, “Certainly, there were no answers to be had.”
Nate Phelps said it was all the “thinking about things” that caused the anxiety. He said he realized that there simply was no way to think his way through it, though he tried to rationalize life to block his emotions. He eventually found that more thinking just increased his anxiety levels and he has been learning to find closure with the various issues in his mind.

“My father is not a human,” Nate Phelps said.  “The official story around the household is that Dad was once balanced and even-keeled, until he found salvation. And then suddenly, he became aggressive.

“But I don’t know what made him so angry and hateful,” Nate added.

Perhaps it was because Phelps Sr.’s mother died when he was 5. Perhaps it was because his father had a violent job. Perhaps he invested so much energy in a runaway, run-amuck spiritual path that admitting a lifetime of mistakes is way too much for his ego to contend with.

Nate Phelps may never put all the pieces together from his childhood, but he is learning to live a life of peace now, in Alberta, Canada with his new fiancée, Angela. “Angela keeps me on my toes and keeps me communicating,” he said.

But Nate can’t help but be honest and share that he still sometimes wonders what people would think of him if they really knew him.

Today, Phelps speaks internationally about his life, about his belief that “things are good enough for now,” and about “living in the gray.” In fact, his usual speech is entitled “The Uncomfortable Grayness of Life.”

It is hard to live this way, between black and white, Nate Phelps said. But, he added, rather comfortably, there no absolutes anyway.

For more about Nate Phelps, his writing and his speaking, go online to NatePhelps.com. For more about Fred Phelps and WBC, go online to their new website, GodHatesTheWorld.com.

Renee Baker is a transgender consultant and massage therapist and can be found online at Renee-Baker.com.

This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition September 17, 2010.

—  Michael Stephens