New Oklahoma Law Restricts Westboro Protests

Raw Story is reporting that Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin signed a bill into law on Monday restricting protests at military funerals.

The new law, introduced by Republican State Senator Josh Brecheen, prohibits protests two hours before or after a funeral. It also restricts protesters from being within 1,000 feet of a funeral, up from 500 feet under a previous law.

"Protesting a funeral for political purposes is an abhorrent and disgusting practice," Fallin said. "While such distasteful protests have been ruled constitutionally protected and cannot be legally prohibited, this legislation will help protect grieving families from people who are looking to exploit their suffering."

The infamous Westboro Baptist Church pickets the funerals of military families with offensive signs such as "Thank God for Dead Soldiers" and "God Hates America." The church believes that God is punishing the United States because of America's acceptance of homosexuality.

"It's deplorable," Brecheen said. If your family sacrificed to the level that those in likened situations have sacrificed, this shouldn't happen."

Not a single Oklahoma lawmaker from either house of the state legislature voted against the bill.

In November 2010, angry residents slashed the tires on the church's van after they picketed the funeral of a McAlester, Oklahoma soldier. Police said the Westboro Baptists were unable to find anyone in town who would repair their vehicle.

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WV Man Acquitted of Battery for Spitting on Westboro's Shirley Phelps-Roper

Unlikely hero, Billy Spade.

A Fayette County West Virginia man was acquitted of battery charges stemming from an incident in April, 2010, when members of the infamous Phelps klan protested the funerals of mineworkers killed by an explosion at the Massey Energy coal mine.

It took the jury just one hour to decide that Billy Spade was not guilty of battery when he spat tobacco juice on a sign being held by Westboro Baptist Church's Shirley Phelps-Roper. Arresting officer Sgt. Nick Null, who was assigned to the protest, said he saw Spade spit on Phelps-Roper's chest.

Spade told the jury he was offended by signs that said "Thank God For Dead Coal Miners", but it was a sign that said "Thank God For Dead Marines" that was the last straw for him. A roadside bomb killed Spade's close friend, a Marine serving in Afghanistan.

See the full story in the Charleston Gazette.

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Va. Tech Hokies vs. Westboro Baptist: Clash in the Bible Belt (video)

A handful of protesters from the notorious Westboro Baptist Church led by Shirley Phelps-Roper, daughter of founder Fred Phelps, picketed in three locations around the town of Blacksburg only to be confronted by hundreds of students and faculty from Virginia Tech, citizens from the town of Blacksburg and the father of Morgan Harrington, the Tech student who was abducted, raped and murdered after a concert in Charlottesville last year.

The wackos from Westboro say that Harrington's murder and the Virginia Tech massacre nearly three years ago were the result of a curse from God for Tech's tolerance of gays and lesbians.

By all accounts, the protests and counter-protests were peaceful. The event was used as a fundraiser by the LGBTA student group from Tech.

All three local TV news programs covered the protests. Roanoke's Newschannel10's coverage (shown first below) did not include Phelps-Roper's hateful message as they found it too offensive to broadcast, instead focusing on the positive messages coming from counter protesters.

The coverage from Lynchburg's ABC-13 (shown below 2nd) gave way too much attention the the Phelpses in my opinion, but also focused on the reaction of Morgan Harrington's father and his difficulty in dealing with this desecration of his daughter's memory.

News 7 (which for some reason won't embed) took a different approach and focused on Westboro Baptist's misinterpretation of the bible, with commentary from a local preacher. You can view that video here.

What I find the most amusing is that when religious extremists like this show up in a state that is run by rabidly anti-gay politicians, the churchy folks show up to denounce them. But months from now when the Phelps Klan has gone home and today's protests are a distant memory, those same people will use the very same bible verses as the Phelpes to justify their own anti-gay bigotry. It's as if Virginians are saying, "Hey, if anybody's gonna hate our faggots, it'll be us! Go get your own faggots to bash!"

My brain hurts.

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