The lovely folks at Westboro Baptist Church will protest the NCAA men’s basketball Final Four in April. Apparently the NCAA is full of gay people and child molestors. From Twitter:
The NCAA is a hot bed of God knows how many raping coaches, & a public relations outlet for fags and fag marriage.
Mmmmm – that’s enough.
They’ll also protest the Sprint Cup race in Kansas on April 21. They posted this gem of a tweet about their opposition to NASCAR, after Brad Keselowski’s interview with Queers4Gears:
Get off the sidelines and into the game
Our weekly newsletter is packed with everything from locker room chatter to pressing LGBTQ sports issues.
Signs packed, @keselowski, you hateful man, to picket you, @nascar & the whole racing gang at @kansasspeedway 4/21 >> twitter.com/WBCSays/status…
— Westboro Baptist (@WBCSays) March 20, 2013
The NASCAR protest is particularly interesting, since the races attract a crowd that is stereotypically considered anti-gay. But my guess is the WBC folks won’t be warmly welcomed.
Some people have asked why we write about these nasty, homophobic people. To us, highlighting this over-the-top anti-gay language and actions give people in sports the opportunity to check where they are on LGBT issues. Seeing this stuff provides a great moment for them to say, “I may not understand gay people or gay marriage, but I’m not anti-gay like that.”
It’s an important dynamic. So please bear with us.