https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petiti ... p/DYf3pH2d

I don't ask a whole lot. But if I could get anything from you, I would at least have you sign this online petition. And yes, I realize how effective these things usually are (or more specifically how they usually aren't), but if there is even a the slightest chance it could work, then I want to act on it.

This petition is to deal some heavy damage to Westboro Baptist church. If passed, they will lose their tax exemption as a religious group and my very well have some governmental regulations imposed.

This is just part of an attack by Anon, who's already taken other actions since Westboro has announced that they will be picketing the Connecticut vigil for the 20 six and sever year old children who died at the hands of a gunman last week. Anon has done a few other things like given personal information on Westboro members, break into twitter accounts, and pull down their site at temporarily godhatesfags.

I don't know if Anon will actually be able to pull this off, but any resistance at all towards these hate mongers is something I can get behind.




"Evil flourishes when good men do Nothing."

You had my support from the moment you mentioned what this was about. Those monsters deserve punishment, swift and quick.

As I mentioned to you earlier, I have signed.

Signed and shared on my facebook.

Oh, sweet Serena, I should have known the wolves would be roused once the school shooting hit the news. You've got my support, there. That blasted church gives Christianity a seriously bad name.

Signed. Definitely

Thanks guys. This means a lot to me.

The truest test of how you view freedom is when you have to apply it to the people you despise the most. I frankly find them disgusting (to say the very least), but as long as they do not break the law, they are within their rights to be hateful pissants. The best way to fight them is to ignore them, not shower them with attention like this.

Not even the KKK is legally called a hate group and they actually KILLED people.

Easy for everyone else to ignore them, but what about the people who will be at the funeral, mourning their children that died? Emotional people have a hard time just ignoring stuff like that. It may not be against the "law" but don't forget that our justice system is kind of a joke sometimes. Be that as it may, these people prey on people that are grieving and are weak. People will be emotional. People will get mad. This stuff will make the press. They're getting exposure no matter what. So why ignore something that isn't going to be ignored anyway?

Ignorance is bliss.

I really get that, and they do want attention. However, action leads to results. Freedom of speech is a misnomer anyways- hate speech is something they can absolutely do. However, there are consequences in the sense that, other people can speak right back out- or take away tax privileges with enough resources. Personally, I feel any church should have to prove they're actually helping communities and charities before receiving tax breaks anyways, but that's neither here nor there.

Basically, as someone has been the target of these people's tainted religious ire for so long, I really have no pity whatsoever. I'm just glad other people are finally noticing the amount of disrespect and pure idiocy these inbreeders have.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/1 ... 31880.html

Thankfully, people are helping the victims in the community out. Turns out, people really don't like when you're a freaking ass. And so, that is the consequence of free speech. Can you say what you want? Yeah. Can people do what they want to in return? Yup. I had the same problem with the CFA thing. No one was taking a straight white old rich man's ability to speak in that either. They simply responded, with their own words and their wallets. And guess what? CFA rescinded its terrible policies(but not its terrible chicken loaded with GMOs and pink slime, sad to say). Action leads to action. I excuse a lot, and there's casual bigotry all the time. ALL the time for me. However, this stuff is beyond that by so much.

So the TL;DR is, I absolutely support freedom of speech, even hate speech. But it's a two way street, and showing your ass will never be something without common-sense consequence- and in extreme cases where someone's character is damaged, or someone is driven to extremes- litigation.

I don't follow all this enough but I never understood why what Westboro Baptist Church does can't be legally considered harassment or even stalking. Also while people are allowed to protest in this country they are not always allowed to protest anywhere they want and I don't know why something can't be done to make sure that their protest is so far away as to be unnoticeable by those who attend the funerals. I mean there are even laws against things like disturbing the peace. If the KKK did this anytime there was a black person funeral I am sure their 'freedoms' would not be protected. It would be considered a threat even if it were not a threat (i.e. even if they just wanted to cause emotional damage at the funeral and nothing more). Yet in this case people on both sides of every coin despise the actions of Westboro church and consider it to be immoral, unethical, detrimental, damaging, and unworthy of protection. I don't know why they even got this far yet.

I thought I should share this here...



That's from an LGBT news site which can be found here.

Also, the petition for the tax exemption removal is at 50K signatures.

The problem with multiple petitions is that the votes get spread. If they are recognized as a hate group, they will automatically lose their tax exemption as being classified as a religious is what gives them said exemption. I will vote on those too though.

Edit: For those curious, there are actually three that do the same as the original:

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petiti ... h/YrKbHYtV
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petiti ... e/kmYR4DTL
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petiti ... p/tNVz4V7Q

I wish all these votes would just pile into the original. That would be an additional 180k votes.

Yeah, I wasn't actually aware both petitions weren't the same until I was about to hit the submit button here. Still, at least both are past the 25K needed signatures.

Seven months and over 670,000 signatures later, the white house has finally responded.



TL:DR We're doing nothing, but we are really really unhappy with them.


It was worth a shot, right?

=(

Figures.

Well, that sucks. It doesn't surprise me even if it disappoints me. Oh, you know who else hates Westboro Baptist Church? The KKK

I remember reading that article a while ago.

"hooray

KKK!"

I chanted that in my mind and now I feel dirty