I thought i would be happier about this...

[Chris James]

Something like this is inevitable for all of us, I just thought I would be happier when I read about his demise and it seems I will very soon.

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/the-miserable-end-of-fred-phelps/

I suppose he was an important icon in the ongoing fight for gay rights. I say that because he gave us something to despise with his lunatic religious views and brought us all together to oppose him. He won't be missed by me and many others, and it seems even his church won't mind when he is gone.

I have a lasting impression of Fred Phelps from the moment I first saw him back in 1992. The event was the Names Project AIDS Quilt display in Washington, D.C. This was about the fourth time the quilt had come to the National Mall but perhaps the first time Freddie came with it.

I recall his signs of the God Hates Fags variety. It was just so surreal that anyone could openly display such mindless hatred. I saw the neon colored signs through the crowd where Freddie was standing in the grass on the slope leading up to the Washington Monument. He was surrounded by hundreds of gay and lesbian people and yet no one did anything except yell at him to leave.

He could have caused a riot. Many of us laughed at him and I recall yelling that he had come to the wrong place. But he looked like he was about to become a martyr and the Park Police must have agreed because they removed him from sight.

Old Freddie is a fine example of how each of us can coexist under the rules of the Constitution. His right to display such hatred has rarely been abridged. No matter what his religious feelings, Mother Nature is winning now. Nothing new about that, Freddie has always been a loser.

[Cole Parker]

And that's the thing, isn't it? For all his hatred and ugliness, the gay cause moved forward on his watch, and he could do nothing to stop it. In fact things improved more rapidly during his times that they ever had before. Talk about his bilious spewing being ineffective! All he did was posture and hurt feelings of those already suffering. In the end, he did nothing of substance and was a total failure.

C

[Nigel Gordon]

And that's the thing, isn't it? For all his hatred and ugliness, the gay cause moved forward on his watch, and he could do nothing to stop it. In fact things improved more rapidly during his times that they ever had before. Talk about his bilious spewing being ineffective! All he did was posture and hurt feelings of those already suffering. In the end, he did nothing of substance and was a total failure.

C

In fact he may even have helped the cause, I know that sounds stupid but a comment I heard at a recent LGBT event was to the effect that the extreme position taken by the religious fundamentalists was so clearly stupid that it made people who had lukewarm about gay rights move to a position where they supported them, just so they did not get tarred with the same brush.

[FreeThinker]

I'm not sure things are going to continue to get better for GLBT people though. A number of Republicans and religious conservatives here in America are praising Vladimir Putin for his anti-gay politics and suggesting we enact similar measures here in the US. I think it will become fashionable in the right wing to resume gay-bashing, just as its becoming more fashionable on Fox News and other right-wing outlets to make more overtly racist comments as well. The more the right wing compartmentalizes and refuses to find news or commentary from any source other than in the right-wing bubble, the easier it is for them to devolve back to their Neanderthal thinking from the past.

[Cole Parker]

Isn't some of that like the last gasps of a dying movement? Don't they usually resort to extreme measure as a last ditch stand which ultimately fails? They see themselves losing and can't help but spew their last ounces of hatred as they go down in flames.

Yes, they're getting noisier. I think these are noises of desperation.

C

[Nigel Gordon]

Isn't some of that like the last gasps of a dying movement? Don't they usually resort to extreme measure as a last ditch stand which ultimately fails? They see themselves losing and can't help but spew their last ounces of hatred as they go down in flames.

Yes, they're getting noisier. I think these are noises of desperation.

C

I think there is a lot of truth in what Cole says. The problem is that the more they see themselves losing the more desperate they become and desperate people do desperate things, just look at what American Baptist have managed to pull off in Uganda, though even they are now saying that the law there has gone too far, that's after seeing the backlash it has created.

I don't know what things were like in the States but I do know that in the period between 1964 and 1967 when it was very clear that the legalization of homosexuality was going to come about there was major pressure put on the police to clamp down on homosexual activity. I heard from one source that in those three years more arrests were made than in the previous ten, though I have not been able to authenticate that information. What I do know from a friend who was a senior police officer at the time was that they came under heavy pressure from the local Watch Committees, which were mostly made up of people from the conservative end of the political spectrum, to 'show how bad this problem is". It totally back fired as a couple of high profile arrests ended up with juries acquitting against the body of the evidence as they thought it was nobody's business what went on in private in a bedroom, which showed that popular opinion was in line with legalization.

[The Pecman]

The very unrighteous Fred Phelps was an asshole of assholes. Howard Stern used to put him and/or his daughter Shirley on the show to rail about how "God Hates Fags," but eventually, even Howard got tired of their rhetoric and started ignoring them... which made them even angrier.

The question I have is: why did Fred's own church throw the guy out? I bet there's a story there...

[E.J.]

The question I have is: why did Fred's own church throw the guy out? I bet there's a story there...

Estate Taxes?

[JamesSavik]

Die like the pig you are Phelps. I hope its slow and painful.

I will shit on your grave.

[Chris James]

Always remember others may hate you but those who hate you don't win unless you hate them. And then you destroy yourself.

A quote from...of all people...Richard M. Nixon. Perhaps a bit defensive but a truth nonetheless from one of the most destructive people in the past century. Nixon will be remembered, Fred Phelps will not, and in that we may gain some satisfaction.

[JamesSavik]

Feb 26, 1996 was one of the worst days of my life.

Jeff got sick when it got cold that year and he never got better. Once the pneumocystic pneumonia set in, they were never able to get him over it. I thought we had a little more time but we didn't. He died over the weekend and was buried on a Tuesday.

It messed me up pretty bad. I wasn't even invited to the funeral but went anyway.

When it was over, the Westburo people were out on Highway 80 having a party. They were having a ball singing and dancing and waving their posters. They were getting off on our grief. That's the kind of sick ass bastards we're talking about.

I would have probably gone to jail that day if it wasn't for some of our friends.

I forgive that which is petty but for an insult like that? I don't think so.

When that evil bastard dies, he'll get to see what God hates first hand and I don't think they are on the same page.

[Alien Son]

When that evil bastard dies, he'll get to see what God hates first hand and I don't think they are on the same page.

Westboro Baptist Church started me on a journey that led to my acceptance of my sexuality - something I had struggled with for nigh on 40 years. (If you're interested you can read about WBC's part in the beginning of that journey here).

I agree with you, James. Fred Phelps will have to give an account of his life, and I'm sure he's going to find he hasn't been on the same page as the God he claims to serve. I am continually appalled at the attitudes of my fellow-Christians to gay people - and of WBC in particular.

[The Pecman]

I was impressed by this editorial by a gay writer who points out, if we hate Fred Phelps and are glad he died, we're merely becoming as evil as he was. I think the right thing to do is feel bad about anybody who suffers and dies, not celebrate the tragedy, and don't do any protests or picketing at all. Read Kristen Hotham Carroll's essay:

It is now 2014. Reverend Phelps is nearing death, and the world looks very different than just 15 or 16 years ago. Gay marriage will soon be legal in every state in the U.S. Signs saying "God Hates Fags" are no longer hurtful. They are more an object of amusement at best and an eye roll at worst, than anything else. I can still quickly remember a time when that wasn't the case.

It would certainly be understandable if there were members of the LGBT community, as well as so many others, who felt inclined to picket the funeral of Fred Phelps. Though the weight of his actions and pickets has dissipated over the years, there was a time when his actions and leadership cause a tremendous amount of grief for an awful lot of people. It is my hope, however, that no one will descend to the level of hatred and pettiness that seemed to fuel the last decades of his life. We would only be harming our own souls, to carry out such a callous, immoral and emotionally void action. It is my prayer that in the last moments of his life, the Reverend is able to find peace and love, as he prepares to be humbled before his maker. The time for the hurt is ending. It is time to let the healing begin. Truly, the best way to avenge hurt inflicted by our enemies is to simply forgive them, and not allow them to have a stronghold in our hearts.

Rest in peace, Fred. I forgive you.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kristen-hotham-carroll/fred-phelps-westboro_b_4976787.html?utm_hp_ref=gay-voices

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

I believe this is the correct response.

[Guest Dabeagle]

I don't forgive him, but I wouldn't waste my time or money picketing a funeral.

[Hoskins]

I think the best picketing to be done would be to stand outside the church/funeral pyre/whatever, backs turned.

Either that, or nothing at all. Not even an obituary. No attention to them pisses them off more than any protest does.

[Nigel Gordon]

Either that, or nothing at all. Not even an obituary. No attention to them pisses them off more than any protest does.

Precisely, there is an old saying that even bad publicity is better than no publicity, so let's try and make sure they get no publicity. That will annoy them.

[Cole Parker]

Personally, I don't want to annoy them; I want to forget they even existed.

C

[Chris James]

Media reports that Fred Phelps died just after midnight this morning. For a lot of you that means he's standing in hell about now, but for the rest of us non-Christians he tried to make the lives of gay people a living hell right here on earth.

[Hoskins]

Who?

[The Pecman]

Huffington Post reminded readers of comedian Patton Oswalt's funny and very incisive editorial against Phred Phelps from 2007. It's worth a read:

http://www.spin.com/articles/fred-phelps-patton-oswalt-essay-death-takedown-2007/

[Cole Parker]

One more little bit of hatred has left the show.

C

[Guest Dabeagle]

Ding, dong the witch is dead, the wicked witch...

[JamesSavik]

'I've never wished a man dead, but I have read some obituaries with great pleasure.'
-Clarence Darrow

[Hoskins]

Ha!

http://www.theonion.com/articles/fred-phelps-man-who-forever-stopped-march-of-gay-r,35582/

[Chris James]

A final word:

http://www.lgbtqnation.com/2014/03/a-requiem-on-the-death-of-fred-phelps/