This is not a blog entry for Kansans. This is for everyone else on the planet. Everyone who despises the Westboro Baptist Church.* Oddly enough, the WBC is currently trying to make headlines not for protesting someone or something, but by supporting Duck Dynasty's Phil Robertson, who has been suspended from his reality show for making anti-gay remarks in an interview with GQ Magazine.
The WBC makes its headquarters in Topeka, Kansas, about 20 minutes down the road from where my family and I live. (Lucky us!) The first time I remember seeing a WBC protest was in my home town of Lawrence, in the early 1990s. The WBC protested in Lawrence a lot back then, mostly because we’re the home of the University of Kansas, and they loved brandishing signs calling us “Fag Hawks” and “Gay U.” (Because, you know, people who go to college are likely to turn gay. Or bisexual. Or become drag queens. Or something. Never mind the fact that most of the members of the WBC also went to college, but whatever.)
My reaction the first time I saw a WBC protest was the same as most everyone else’s I guess: Shock. Dismay. Anger. Disbelief. Once, while driving by a WBC protest with a friend, I leaned out the car window and screamed “ALL OF YOU PEOPLE ARE GOING TO HELL!” Which made me feel a little better for a little while, but ultimately, after seeing several more of their so-called “protests,” I realized it didn’t do any good to scream like a maniac at a bunch of maniacs.
The WBC made for easy journalism fodder when they first started making waves with their protests. Newspapers and local televisions news stations had kind of a field day for a couple of years, because let’s face it, when it comes to the WBC, it’s hard to look away. At least at first. Then, around about the mid- to late 1990s, the Kansas media all came to the same conclusion: There was just no good reason to give these clowns any more coverage. It was always the same crap on a different day with these yayhoos. Nothing was ever new and nothing ever really changed. So the Kansas media—newspapers, television news, radio, everything—stopped giving voice to the Westboro Baptist Church. There wasn’t a meeting or an official agreement … it just sort of happened. (Having said that, the Pitch, an alternative newspaper in Kansas City, will occasionally do a thoughtful expose on WBC, and there’s a really hilarious DJ named Lazlo on KC station 96.5 the Buzz who once in a while will do a phone interview with one of the Phelps women, but Lazlo’s so funny, you have to give him a pass.)
When the Kansas media stopped covering the WBC, the WBC were forced to protest elsewhere. Places where their signs were still shocked people. Places they could get a reaction, because here in Kansas, we’ve learned to mostly ignore them.
Sorry world.
You see, the WBC depends on raw human reaction. The WBC is a small church, mostly made up of members of Founding member Fred Phelp’s own family. And most of the family, Fred included, is a lawyer. So their protests serve a two-fold purpose: The first is to spread their very real belief that homosexuality is a sin that’s destroying the United States of America. The second is to get people so worked up, so pissed off, that they’ll do something rash so that the WBC can sue them. And because the WBC has so many lawyers at its disposal, they often win. The winnings, while not the WBC’s sole source of income, still help to pad the coffers.
But seriously, people. While their brightly colored signs and mind-blowing slogans may seem scary at first, there’s no threat there. In fact, the WBC is so extreme that your garden variety bigot is turned off by them. Think of the WBC like a circus. A demented little circus designed to baffle and inflame public sensibility. They never actually touch anybody, because they know that would open them up to lawsuits. They’re just incredibly irritating.
Counter-protests to shield the families at funerals where the WBC is picketing is definitely appropriate. Other than that, the best way to combat the WBC is to ignore them. Like a plant in a closet, they die without light.
When I see the WBC now, which isn’t nearly as often as it used to be, I don’t even see them anymore. As soon as I catch a glimpse of their brightly colored bizzaro-world signs, my brain sort of shifts into neutral. My eyes glaze over. I might be aware of the fact that their big mouths are yelling highly offensive things at totally innocent people but I can’t even hear them anymore. I don’t get angry. I just look away.
I mean, take a minute to really look at a photo of some of these poor excuses for human beings and tell me how anybody could possibly take this hot mess seriously:
You will eat your babies?! What does that even mean?
*If you’re unfamiliar with the Westboro Baptist Church, or you’d like more information about them, the Southern Poverty Law Center is a great resource.
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