I’m going to disagree with you there. From the far left to the far right, the general public has been expressing nothing but disgust and outrage at everything this group has done since the early 1990s. There’s never been any pretense of public approval or respectability, if anything they seem to get off on alienating the few allies they’d otherwise have. (Even the most bigoted of right-wingers balked when the clan started celebrating dead soldiers.)
They know the public hates them and they embrace that hatred like a warm blanket. I’d sooner leave them out in the cold. Or better yet, help them find a way to follow the scores of other former WBC members who escaped that horrible cult.
Same here – sitting on the fence.
Now that I think about it, I would like to be sitting on a fence watching his corpse being used as a bull semen catcher…
edit: still on the fence, but I chose what direction I want to face…
Part of me wants to agree, but another part knows that the better response is one like George Takei’s:
"I take no solace or joy in this man’s passing. We will not dance upon his grave, nor stand vigil at his funeral holding “God Hates Freds” signs, tempting as it may be.
He was a tormented soul, who tormented so many. Hate never wins out in the end. It instead goes always to its lonely, dusty end."
Ironically Phelps probably did as much as any other individual to help the gay rights movement pick up steam in the late '90s. Not on purpose of course, but in the same way that Emmet Till’s murderers and Chief Bull Connor orchestrated events that galvanized the civil rights movement in the 1950s.
I do not respect Fred Phelps, nor do I forgive the pain he inflicted, but I value him. I value what he contributed to the struggle for LGBT equality. I am grateful that because of his presence, millions woke up to understand homophobia better and to confront it. […] He achieved the most epic fail in modern history. Not only did he not inspire a single person to his point of view, he drove millions away in revulsion. For everything he lost in personal credibility and respect, he helped fortify the well being of those he sought to destroy.
“They will see it as a gracious and generous show of respect for an elder statesman.”
Who the fuck cares what those delusional fucksticks see? They see jesus in biscuits. They see fags as a plot by satan. They see indifference as “respect.” Those are the traits of lots of assholes around here. So fucking what?
They are a teeny, tiny marginalized minority. It’s only through their horrific practice of funeral crashing that their wretchedness seems to cast a disproportionally larger shadow. Now you’re gonna go crash their shit to show them who’s right?
If you are somebody who has had to bear the burden of these batshit-chum munchers at a loved one’s funeral, then I can absolutely understand the impulse. But there is deep strength in dignity. Not just one’s own personal dignity of simply not being an asshole, but human, MLK-style, Dignity. Dignity which suggests that the appalling actions of our enemies are not things to try to emulate but to try and defeat.
Implications: Referencing the previous study that linked racial prejudice with increased mortality risk, the researchers note that it was unclear from that study whether the risk could be generalized to prejudice in general.
“Thus, our ability to document a relationship between a different form of prejudice (i.e., antigay attitudes) and mortality risk suggests that the effects of prejudice on population health may have a broader reach than originally thought,” the researchers write. This study shows that prejudice may be a public health risk not just for the discriminated-against, but for the discriminators as well.
If she did attend the funeral, she would show the same respect as for any other funeral. If you asked her opinion on the deceased she’d say “That poor unhappy man- I hope his soul finds love and forgiveness.” And she’d mean it, too.
As the old joke goes, everyone brings happiness into our lives- some by entering, some by leaving. Let this man’s poison die with him.
According to Slate, it was the other way around - he got kicked out of the church, so he went on a hunger strike, which certainly can’t have been good for his health, although it’s unclear to me if the hunger strike led directly to whatever killed him
