CONFRONTING SHIRLEY PHELPS-ROPER

There is a horrible stench in San Diego this weekend.

It is the smell of hate and bigotry, spewed out by people that claim they represent God. The God they represent is the God of Hate and the ignorant fail to realize that it is, in actuality, Satan and his demons. According to Christianity Jesus Christ was the "Prince of Peace" while Satan was the king of hate, division, greed and gluttony and especially lies.

So you tell me what deity Shirley Phelps-Roper really serves!

The stench is courtesy of the Westboro Baptist Church and daughter of Fred Phelps, Shirley Phelps-Roper seen in the picture.

Yesterday one of their targeted locations was San Diego High School. The reason for the appearance was because "SDHS is teaching kids that being gay is ok" according to their vile "God Hates Fags" website.

Oddly enough the high school did not have a gay-straight alliance until two weeks ago.

When students learned that the filthy Phelps family was intending to come to their school they mobilized and did something proactive.

There were just a handful of WBC members compared to the counter protest groups which included the Universalist Church in silent protest, groups from San Diego City college which is a neighbor to the High School plus other gay, lesbian, bi and transgendered groups and people.

Many Jewish people were visible as well and when the high school kids were out of school a good number of them joined the protest.

From what I observed none of the student joined Shirley Phelps-Roper and the others that were surrounded by the mainstream media and police.

The most stomach turning aspect was the fact that she had her children, seen in the pic, out with them.

Fundamentalist Christians and Baptists, during the NO H8 campaign insisted that gay marriage was bad because it would affect children and the family.

Forcing young children to hold signs and wear tee shirts that promote hate does not seem like a good family value to me.

In fact, it loosely borders on abuse in my opinion.

Beyond the antics of the WBC group I was upset with the media.

When I got home last night I found minimal coverage and most didn't tell the whole story. These vile people came to push their insanity on the students of San Diego High and only one video report that I have seen has students responding.

That report, and probably the most comprehensive, was on the SAN DIEGO NEWS NETWORK webiste and in the writer's peace he mentioned my encounter with Phelps-Roper loosely. You can go read my comment (posted under the name Philip Racuel) and see the video report here.

As you can see in this picture media was all around me. The NBC 7/39 reporter took me aside and I haven't seen whether anything was used from the confrontation that you will see in the video below or the interview.

On the CBS NEWS 8 website they had a report just sowing me being redirected by the cops. All the reporter says is "San Diego Pokice were on gaurd in case tempers flaired..."

Had they bothered to present the confrontation and then interviewed me afterwords they would have understood that, as I stated in the SDNN piece's comments, the mainstream press was all around Phelps-Roper and were not challenging her at all…just letting her spew her hate and I wanted to put her on the spot.

Being a person of faith myself hearing her use Christ’s name while ignoring all of the things he said about love and tolerance enraged me.

So in the confrontation I challenged her…and quite frankly caught her off guard,..which is what good mainstream media reporters should have been doing by the way (I am talking about the TV media not print).

Had they interviewed me they would have learned that the reason I confronted her and was indeed enraged is because in 2000, in east county, I was severely beaten by three youths- the youngest 16 and the oldest 21.

I was on the bus one night and they said I was looking at them “the wrong way”. The next night I got off the bus and was ambushed. They beat me with beer bottles in the face and according to the ER staff I was indeed lucky to survive the head trauma.

During the beating I was called fag, queer and I clearly remember one kid saying “God sends fags to hell.”

It may have not been the Phelps clan but whatever so-called church these kids parents attended eventually brought them into the homophobia fold.

These children were taught to hate by people like the Phelps clan.

The mainstream media coverage of the confrontation was not a surprise..especially the TV media.

Don't be fooled by Rush Limbaugh and his lie that we have "state run liberal media". All of the major TV stations are owned by parent companies that have right-wing conservative CEO's or are owned by corporations like GE...who also manufactures weapons and makes a good profit off of wars...that more than likely get VIP passes to Westboro Baptist Church events.

Instead of covering the real story...the human story the media stayed fixed around the Phelps-Roper circus, asking her silly questions and recording sound bites of her well rehearsed rhetoric.

You will notice that she, as are many of her clones around the nation, are unable to answer hard questions.

They instead talk over people and repeat the same memorized speeches and rhetoric.

The reason I got into a "shouting match" with her was because a few moments before the segment in y video below she rudely yelled at a reporter that dared to interrupt her diatribe.

And true to form the press, aside from NBC 7/39, stayed around the freak show rather than doing the right thing...namely asking me why I chose to confront Shirley Phelps-Roper.

Shame on the media at this event- they should not have been glued to Shirley Phelps-Roper.

The TV cameras should have been set up with the counter protesters to get a lot of sytudent reactiom from the high school kids that were being targeted.

had they done that they would have met kids like Evan, with the tee shirt that was designed by his friend on the right.

Like many of the San Diego High School students that I personally saw join the counter protest, Evan and his friend, identified themselves as heterosexual teens that did not support hate, especially because of someone's sexuality, in any way, shape or form.

The bigger story and the one that should have been told was the story of the kids mobilizing and creating a gay-straight alliance. the story of how many of the kids joined the protest...they almost doubled the size of the counter protesters after school let out.

They should have been asking students that were openly gay how the sort of hate speech...disguised as religious preaching in the name of a deity.. affects them and their lives as gay teens.
Instead the media let the obnoxious Phelps freak mug for the cameras...they gave her what she wanted and basically gave a big FU to the students of SDHS and their supporters.

There is no excuse for them being set up around the homophobes and antisemitic freaks. In a sense, they were validating what blather she was spewing out.

This goes beyond my segment being cut to pieces. It is the failure of media to look at the real stories, the bigger picture when scum like Phelps_Roper appear and impose their hate, blamed on a god, on people- especially children.

Because like I said in the comments on the SDNN piece:

Yes they are insane…yes they are hypocritical…they swear by the Jewish purity laws in Leviticus and yet hate Jews as well.

But the bigger story is the affect- either direct or indirect they have on similar churches of hate and on the family that the Christian right claims to protect.

As the demonstration went on at SDHS somewhere in America a gay kid was being called a fag and humiliated.

Somewhere in America a gay kid was being bat up because of his effeminate nature or presumed homosexuality. somewhere in America a gay kid was seriously considering suicide because they could no longer take the mental, physical and or verbal abuse.

Somewhere in America a gay teen was being kicked out of his or her home because God hates fags and mom and dad do too.

Think that is extreme or an exaggeration. I met two throwaway homeless teens- age 15 and 17 at the protest today.

The bigger story- aside from my own is the effect the poison spewed out by these people has not only on adults but on children as well.

Here is the video I put together which includes my encounter with Shirley Phelps-Roper before the angry woman cop decided that I didn't have the first amendment right to have a heated discussion with someone who would probably piss on my dead body if she had a chance because her god of hate can't stand fags like me.




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