Westboro Hate Cult To Troll Mandela Funeral?

In recent years, the virulent homophobes of the Topeka-based Westboro Baptist Church have regularly put out word that they plan to picket the funerals of soldiers, celebrities, or other public figures. In a number of cases, they ended up being a big no-show, so there is no way of telling if their own tease of alleged antics to come can be taken seriously:

Their next dive into the fray is a triple-gainer by their historical standards, though — a protest of Nelson Mandela’s funeral. In South Africa.

In a series of deliberately-provocative Twitter posts, the church says it is buying plane tickets to South Africa and is hoping to coordinate with South African police while they stage a protest at the funeral, citing Mandela’s divorce and remarriage as evidence of damnation.

The Westboro Baptist Church has gained international infamy for picketing the funerals of dead soldiers with offensive signs such as “God hates f*gs” and is widely considered to be a hate group.

WBC founder Fred Phelps is — perhaps surprisingly — a veteran of the civil rights movement, but the group’s more offensive picket signs and statements may run afoul of South Africa’s limitations on free speech.

Now that makes their possible visit much more interesting!

By: dave-dr-gonzo

David Hirsch, a.k.a. Dave "Doctor" Gonzo*, is a renegade record producer, video producer, writer, reformed corporate shill, and still-registered lobbyist for non-one-percenter performing artists and musicians. He lives in a heavily fortified compound in one of Manhattan's less trendy neighborhoods.

* Hirsch is the third person to use the pseudonym, a not-so-veiled tribute to journalist and author Hunter S. Thompson, with the permission of his predecessors Gene Gaudette of American Politics Journal (currently webmaster and chief bottlewasher at Liberaland) and Stephen Meese at Smashmouth Politics.