Becky's T-Blog

Thursday, January 26, 2006

Hatred

This has been probably been blogged to death, if so apologies but it's new to me.

Sometimes I come across a site that's so scary that I pray it's a hoax. Unfortunately God Hates Fags isn't one of those sites. It's real. These guys really do hate homosexuals, because they believe God hates homosexuals, and apparently that's the cause of every recent disaster in US history.

According to the Wesboro Baptist Church (the people behind the site), the mine collapse that killed all those people in West Virginia was god's retribution for the US's stance on gays and gay rights, because God hates fags. According to the WBC, every US soldier that's killed in Iraq (gay or not) has been struck down by a vengeful fag-hating Lord.

This wouldn't be so bad, if it was just the sad website of a few crackpot individuals, but these guys turn up and picket the funerals of US soldiers, and West-Virginian miners, carrying banners with catchy slogans such as "AIDS CURES FAGS", "THANK GOD FOR AIDS" and of course "GOD HATES FAGS". Imagine trying to mourn the death of a loved one with a picket like that going on outside the gates.

Here's some other choice tidbits from the website:

"Fag Fact: Depending on the city, 39-59% of fags are infected with intestinal parasites like worms, flukes and amoebae, which is common in filthy third world countries."

"God Hates Fag! & Fag Enablers! and those that threaten his Messengers with bloody violence and death for preaching God's Word to them. Ergo, God hates West Virginia."

It's hard to know what to say, without sounding trite.

Looking through that site made me very angry, and feel a little impotent against the depths of hatred that are fostered under the banner of Christianity (whether "Christianity" likes it or not).

I know that what these people are preaching is against what the vast majority of Christians believe, I don't need to be told that.

I don't really know what I want to be told.

Someone to say "yes but... no-one's listening to these guys," I guess. But the scary thing is, I know people are.

April Angell oooh, now. How do you spell "denial of service" again?

April Angell oh and, for the record, I was having a chat with my mate God the other, just popped round for a cup of tea like he does sometimes. I can remember him being a bit pissed with West Virginia, but he seemed totally fine about the whole Fag thing. So, there you go. You heard it from the Angell!

Jessica why were you looking at that site? i looked at it yesterday after it popped into my head, i havent thought about it or looked at it for about 5 years! anyway, check out http://www.godlovesfags.com/ :)

Becky They've been in the news recently for picketing funerals etc.

Jessica see also: http://www.godlovesfags.com/state1.html

Becky I happened to look because they've been in the news for picketing funerals, I guessed they'd been around for a while.

Stephanie Delacey This post has been removed by a blog administrator.

Michelle Faith I lived in Virginia for a while when I was a teenager. You can get some fairly odd religious groups down there.
Religious groups of that strain like to blame things and use everyday occurences to point to the second coming.
There was one church group that used to have live rattle snakes in their services and they parishoners would pick them up and dance with them and all sorts. If they were bitten it was said that they didn't have the spirit of Christ in them.
There are plenty of mad lunatics in the world. Thankfully they don't make up a large part of the population.

Tiffany It's people like those that make home a very difficult place to be for me.

Those kinds of attitudes are so prevalent in the southern part of the US. We see them in newspapers every day, in letters to the editor that are mostly from bigots.

I don't get why it seems to be a regional thing. It makes me mad that just because of some distance (albeit a very big one), we have different views.

But that's why I'm glad to be in a big city. Even if it's still the south, people are generally more accepting here. Or at least the people who aren't know how to shut up, unlike in other places. Like home.

Emily It gets even worse. In my "normal", every day identity I work at a newspaper in Missouri (the Westboro Baptist Church is in Kansas, the state just west of us) & we receive about 5-6 hate-filled faxes from them a week. Why? Because after we first received one of their newsletters bragging & recruiting to picket a gay soldier's a few months ago we contacted them to get removed from their address list. This apparently has idenitifed us as more "godless faggot sympathizers", & therefore also places us (& I would assume anyone else who doesn't agree with them) on their list of "people who should burn in hell". When we've tried to talk to them on the phone, they respond with loud verbal abuse (quote) "because we don't deserve to be treated fairly & all our employees are going to burn in hell" (unquote). We've even got the state attorney involved, & a few states have even passed anti-hate laws specifically targeting the abuse by this church's policies, but they still continue, strong as ever. If this is what it means to be a typical christian (& I'm afraid it does, at least in the states), I'm glad I'm not one of them. (No offense intended to any reader of this fine list of commentaries - just venting).

Kath Yeah, those f*cks recently protested at a funeral for a soldier in Georgia. The local authorities held up screens to keep them from the family's view. In my opinion, these people are really just a highly (and grotesquely) concentrated reflection of the general views and opinions of many people in America.

Natalie Yes. That even made the student newspaper at the University of Georgia when they came.

Emily, I just want to tell you that your fear of this being what "normal" Christians are like is unfounded. While many don't actively persue gay rights (which is a shame) they (we) aren't all insensitive militant bigots.

P.S. I've recently identified as TS. That's why I've been pretty absent from comments for a while. So...since I didn't want Mia to be legal, I've used my Obligatory Tranny Name-Change. Now, it's Natalie.

Tiffany I think that this particular group of people are the only ones that really make me angry and make me want to resort to violence.

And I don't do that.

Becky No, don't do that Tiffany!

The thing to do is ignore them. They want to provoke a reaction. If you can't ignore them, then laugh at them and mock them. They're fools that aren't worth our anger or time.

Connie Cox Nowadays it seems that so many religions are distorted to justify a groups/person specific prejudices.
I just wonder if there is hope for humaity sometimes when I read stuff like this.

Emilygrae Ignoring them doesn't make them go away. The free people of the world have never remained free by ignoring their oppressors. Mocking them only makes us look childish, and can give them more reason to hate. This last U.S. federal election was won because the 'christian right' organized themselves and voted against what they considered immorality issues. I'm not sure what to do about it though. Ignoring them doesn't work. Only calm, rational heads can defeat hate. Like close to here, when we sued the neo-nazis into bancruptcy so they moved away. So even then it didn't completely solve the problem, just gave it to somebody else.

Tiffany I wouldn't really do that...

The main problem is that they don't seem to realize that what they might call "the fag problem" isn't going away. Just because they protest with their stupid little signs isn't going to send every gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transsexual/transgender person running back into their closets. (Unless one's a tranny and has gone to get a skirt or something.)

I know what I ought to do now. Find one of those idiots and kiss a woman in front of him. Just to piss him off. Hahaha.

Make love, not war. ;)

Tiffany Oh, noticed how I assumed it was men being asses. I think my school has implanted things in my brain. Or maybe they're ims, they're just not planted, and they go away once I get out of here.

Kath Adams Sadly, it is about fundamentalism. Christian fundamentalists are equally as dangerous as Muslim fundamentalists, or Jewish fundamentalists. True Christians, Muslims & Jews want to live in peace and worry mostly about living their lives in a positive 'Godly' manner. Is it a co-incidence that "fundamentalist" contains the word "mentalist"? I think not.

What is most worrying is the US has a Christian fundamentalist in charge of the country!

Personally, I think all religion involves different people arguing over who has the best imaginary friend, but there you go.

Tiffany Hey, that worries me, too! Next thing I know I won't be able to get an abortion any more. Dammit, what if I want one? And this just goes off on another tangent, but if they get rid of that, it's not like people are going to stop. It's just going to be a process that's more dangerous than it already is. And there are some instances where it should still be acceptable, but the fundamentalists are all over getting rid of it totally. Judging by the fliers that our College Republicans left up on January 22, anyway (Roe v. Wade anniversary, in case you didn't know).

And no one else say anything about this because I know I've gone off on a horrible tangent, but I just vomited my thoughts. I've been thinking a lot lately.

jadis i learned about this site when i was reading up on matthew shepard, a young gay man in wyoming who was brutally beaten, possibly raped (i dont remember exactly), and left for dead. i think he was only around 23. it's a totally tragic story, but one that's chronicled quite well in a play by moises kauffman & co, called "the laramie project." it plays really often in various theatres here in the states, i'm sure it's hit london as well, but if you ever get the chance to go see it, it's heartbreaking. "rev." fred phelps and his idiot followers showed up at matt's fucking funeral to spread their hate; i can't imagine what it was like for his family. honestly, some people deserve to be shot. and it's certainly not people who happen to be attracted to their own gender. anyway, matthew shepard's story is incredible, very worth looking into.

Becky Stephanie - the long URLS you included in your comment was breaking my blog layout, so I had to delete the orginal, sorry! :-)

I've recreated your comment here, with the urls turned into links:

Stephanie Delacey These sites are so awful and exaggerated that it is almost impossible to tell the difference between them and parody sites like the Landover Baptist Church. Try "What to Do With a Sissy Boy Who Says "No" to Sports" here (break his arm is the first answer!!). Just when you think the satire is too OTT you realise that the Westboro Baptist Church do it for real. The leader of the church is a real piece of work - look at this and this- for his life of domestic violence, child abuse, theft, fraud, drug addition etc etc: a real Christian!!

Stephanie Delacey Sorry, Becky - I should have previewed, then I would have noticed the big gaps:)

Kath Adams just popped in, early Sunday morning and noticed the Google add for...

Worms and Parasites
Stop Intestinal Worms and Parasites With this safe herbal worm remedy.

Do you think this is tied to this thread or is intestinal worms a trannie thing I hadn't noticed before?

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