Red State: Leave our Homos alone Preacher!!!

[MSgt213]

Coming Out for One of Their Own
An Oklahoma Teen Finds Love Where He Least Expected It

By Anne Hull
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, November 14, 2004; Page D01

SAND SPRINGS, Okla. -- The fliers arrived three weeks ago. Some came over the fax machines of local churches, and others appeared mysteriously around town. Printed in bold was the heading "Westboro Baptist Church." No seeming cause for alarm. Sand Springs, population 18,500, is a Christian stronghold in the gently rolling hills of eastern Oklahoma.

But the message that followed was a rant against a 17-year-old Sand Springs resident named Michael Shackelford and his mother, Janice, the subjects of a recent Washington Post series examining Michael's struggles as a young gay man in the Bible Belt. The fliers posted a photo of Michael, called him a "doomed teenage fag" and announced that followers of Westboro Baptist in Topeka were on their way from Kansas to stage antigay protests in Sand Springs.

Public theater is the specialty of Westboro Baptist and its minister, Fred Phelps, whose place on the extreme fringe of the antigay movement is symbolized by his Web site, www.godhatesfags.com. But this time, Phelps picked a formidable target.

Oklahoma could never be mistaken for a liberal blue state. President Bush grabbed the seven electoral votes here like a sack of candy, winning 60 percent of the popular vote. A state constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage passed by a 3-to-1 margin.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A48197-2004Nov13?language=printer

[LiberalAndProud]

1. Fred Phelps and followers -- They've picketted here.

I have never felt such hate eminating from a crowd collective before in my sheltered life.

He is evil.

[loathesomeshrub]

2. God hates Phelps and his crowd

[holboz]

3. They visited us in NW Arkansas...

Oddly enough, they picketed CHURCHES. WTF? This is the biggest group of mean spirited bigots that's ever been put on this earth. I've never seen so much hate and vitriol spew from such a group...well, maybe from neo-Nazis and the KKK.