Westboro Meets Long Beach

Jim Burroway

May 15th, 2010

I’m in Long Beach, California, attending the consecration of Rev. Canon Mary Glasspool as Bishop Suffragan for the Episcopal diocese of Los Angeles. Her consecration makes her the second openly gay bishop to be elected in the Episcopal Church.

What I didn’t know until earlier this week was that this also happens to be Pride weekend for Long Beach. And both events are taking place within a few few blocks of each other on the grounds of the Long Beach Convention Center complex (which, fortunately, has WI-FI!). Unsurprisingly, both events proved too tempting for the homophobes to make their presence known.

When I arrived at the Convention Center complex looking for a place to park, I happened across the lonely band of Westboro Baptist family members with their familiar “God hates fags” signs. I stopped dead in my tracks and took some pictures, like any tourist would in the greater LA area when they happen across some celebrities.

But it didn’t take long for others to show up with their own signs indicating what they hated (or loved).  This is where I first learned that Gumby loves everyone.

I left to grab a quick bite for lunch, and when I returned barely twenty minutes later, the Westboro band was completely swamped by a much larger crowd of other people who wanted to express the many things they hated or loved.

For example, she hates brussel sprouts:

Bu she loves coloring:

He just likes signs:

As do these two:

And Jesus was there in their midst:

And here’s my personal favorite:

Trust me, turtles can be pretty gay.

Lindoro Almaviva

May 15th, 2010

I love it!

Ben in Oakland

May 15th, 2010

A perfect response. Sort of a moral purloined letter.,, hiding the bigots in plain sight.

Kaleo

May 15th, 2010

Fantastic – what a great expression.

Burr

May 16th, 2010

One of the signs Jesus is holding makes no sense.

C-Quill

May 16th, 2010

@Burr

It’s a curse from the Necronomicon. Anyone that tries to parse it gets their mind jammed up.

Jim Burroway

May 16th, 2010

I pointed that out to Jesus. He just shrugged and said “that’s the point.”

Aaron

May 16th, 2010

This should be done at every future protest, it’s so clever!

Ginger

May 16th, 2010

brilliant – meeting absurdity with absurdity!

Marlene

May 16th, 2010

Another great tactic is to announce that for as long and the cult shows their ignorance and stupidity, a group will gather pledges per minute, and erect a nice big sign showing Phreddy’s Phreaks how much they’re raising for an LGBT or veteran’s center!

beachewtoy75

May 16th, 2010

We used to hate it when the WBC came to town, now it’s just an excuse to have a PARTY!

Désirée

May 17th, 2010

I love seeing pics of my old home… We do have some pretty wacky Pride days there

VapoRob

May 18th, 2010

That’s all we got to do is shower them with love.

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