How Superheroes Saved San Diego From the Westboro Baptist Church

by Michael Jones · 2010-07-23 08:39:00 UTC
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Perhaps this post should be accompanied by a score from John Williams. That's because a group of folks at Comic-Con, the annual San Diego-based convention spotlighting the latest trends in pop culture, took to the streets yesterday to challenge the angry and evil Westboro Baptist Church.

Westboro came rolling into town to protest Comic-Con for its friendliness to homosexuality, godlessness, and all those other elements that get Westboro and founder Rev. Fred Phelps in a tizzy. But instead of letting the Phelps clan run roughshod over San Diego, activists and participants at Comic-Con crafted one of the most creative counter-protests ever for a Westboro event.

Standing across the street from where a handful of Phelps family members were holding their "God Hates Fags" signs, dozens of Comic-Con folks gathered in protest. There were Jedi Knights, folks dressed as characters from Futurama, and people holding sarcastic signs that said "God Needs a Starship," "God Hates Michael Bay" (the man who keeps bringing us god-awful Transformers movies), "God Loves Gay Robin," and "Superman Died for People's Sins."

Here I was hoping that Captain America had died for people's sins. But Superman is cool, too. Check out a video of the shindig after the jump. It's always refreshing to see folks get creative in drowning out the ramblings of Westboro, and clearly Comic-Con allowed for some of the most interesting counter protests yet. I'm guessing the Phelps clan will have nightmares for months to come about same-sex superheroes bumping and grinding all over the place.

Photo credit: xurble

Michael Jones is a Change.org Editor. He has worked in the field of human rights communications for a decade, most recently for Harvard Law School.
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