What if you had a hate-fest and nobody came?

In a follow-up to yesterday's post, as I predicted, the planned anti-gay protest in front of the Justice Department, which promised us acts of civil disobedience, masses of Christians swarming the streets of DC in numbers not seen since Exodus, was a bust. The friendly folks at the Christian Anti-Defamation Commission (CADC) held a press conference instead, but the apparently press didn't get the memo either, that is accept for the folks at Pro-Life News. Go figure.

There was no mainstream press coverage of the non-event at all, not even the folks at Faux News showed up and this should have been like chum in the water for them.

It was hard to find any online coverage of the defenders of free hate-speech, accept for the Christianist's favorite new target, Courage Award winning blogger, Joe Jervis at Joe.My.God. Joe posted the Pro Life News videos of the unevent. You can see them on his site. I won't waste the server space. 

In the video, wing-nut/propagandist/author Janet Porter gave a rambling speech about how Christians are already being jailed for expressing their message of hope to homos in Europe and Canada. What she left out, was that European countries, who barely survived the Nazi War Machine during World War II, have very strict hate crimes laws because they know first hand where bigotry and intolerance and lead. Unlike the U.S., when Europeans say "never again", they mean it.

It's interesting to note that there were more pro-gay protesters in the video than anti-gay. You can see them right over Porter's shoulder. I'm glad they were able to fight their way through the crowd.

So why the low turnout? Maybe its because it was held on a Monday, when most Americans have something better to do, like go to work. Maybe it's because the CADC folks were hoping to push the limits of free speech and get arrested. Or maybe it's because, like most bullies, homophobes can't walk the walk.

It's easy to carry a protest sign with anti-gay rhetoric, or yell "Faggot!" at someone's house as you drive by (as has happened here), but when you start talking about going to jail for your principles, that's when the bigots loose their enthusiasm. They lack the courage of their convictions that has been the hallmark of every civil rights movement. That's why we will win.