and that's what we saw last night.these are pictures from london(ontario) pride which, like many pride festivities across the country and world, have annual homophobe protesters who want to rain on the parade-literally.
apparently these protesters, whose signs are totally boring, arrive at pride every year and pronounce their hatred of all things homosexual. jesus, apparently, is not fond of the gays and basically we're all going to hell.
it's usually common practise to ignore these kinds of protesters especially consider they aren't really protesters at all, they're just hateful freaks who think that hatred is a political issue, it's hard to engage with them because they hate you and only want to yell at you about burning flesh and all that.
that's why this counter-protest is completely genius:
the "LOL" and "J/K" signs were made up by activists jeffrey andrus, rick telfer, and andrew brett right before the pride parade.
according to jeffrey andrus, one of the activists involved: "the reaction to the signs was totally positive in the crowd. we wanted to take a negative situation and turn it around in a non-violent, non aggressive way and i think that we were very effective at doing that."
agreed. not only are their signs hilarious but their effectiveness comes from the fact that they completely cancel out the message of the homophobic signs by making them a silly internet meme.
apparently before they realized that these men were actually protesting their hate signs one of the older men in the background complimented the signs and told them "good for you guys" because they thought they were there to support them. after they realized that the signs weren't there in support and were actually overtaking their own protest this man went up and allegedly kicked one of the young men holding an "lol"/"jk" sign.
that's right, he kicked him! these homophobic protesters should be kicking themselves because instead of making some kind of anti-gay conversion impact they're just going to be remembered as an Lolcat.
a complaint was made to the police but the kicker just said that the signs made him so angry that he couldn't help himself and so the police apparently gave the pride participant
s with the "lol"/"jk" signs shit for... wait for it... ENTICING the homophobes.
we all know that it doesn't take a lot to "entice" a "straight" homophobe, a few foot taps under the bathroom stall door and they're yours , but honestly london police? this is a legitimate complaint about physical assault during a completely peaceful protest.
it is the opinion of this pamphleteer that all too often homophobic protesters get away with their bullshit, which often includes acts of physical violence. why? because they're often older people? they're usually white people? upper/middle class people? if pride participants walked up to these homophobes and kicked them because they were so angered by their signs they surely would have been arrested.
the beauty of this protest is that these activists didn't need to use physical violence to get their message across and they didn't let these nasty homophobes get away with the usual bullshit.
we posted awhile ago about protests in front of the mormon church and included a video of michael moore's segment on protesting sodomy laws
this protest is in the same vein. using creative and peaceful means these activists threw a wrench in the homophobe's plans by just being present. by making it more difficult for homophobes to just stand there with disgusting signs, maybe protests like these will start to make them reconsider such tactics and realize that if they want to do things like stand on street corners, picket funerals, try to take away rights, or just condemn a lifestyle then they're going to have to come up with a new strategy because we're on to them and in the long run our collective awesomeness will prevail over their dull and tired hatred.
s with the "lol"/"jk" signs shit for... wait for it... ENTICING the homophobes.we all know that it doesn't take a lot to "entice" a "straight" homophobe, a few foot taps under the bathroom stall door and they're yours , but honestly london police? this is a legitimate complaint about physical assault during a completely peaceful protest.
why not ask the homophobic protesters to clear out since they obviously can't control their limbs? why support their violence?
it is the opinion of this pamphleteer that all too often homophobic protesters get away with their bullshit, which often includes acts of physical violence. why? because they're often older people? they're usually white people? upper/middle class people? if pride participants walked up to these homophobes and kicked them because they were so angered by their signs they surely would have been arrested.
the beauty of this protest is that these activists didn't need to use physical violence to get their message across and they didn't let these nasty homophobes get away with the usual bullshit.
we posted awhile ago about protests in front of the mormon church and included a video of michael moore's segment on protesting sodomy laws
this protest is in the same vein. using creative and peaceful means these activists threw a wrench in the homophobe's plans by just being present. by making it more difficult for homophobes to just stand there with disgusting signs, maybe protests like these will start to make them reconsider such tactics and realize that if they want to do things like stand on street corners, picket funerals, try to take away rights, or just condemn a lifestyle then they're going to have to come up with a new strategy because we're on to them and in the long run our collective awesomeness will prevail over their dull and tired hatred.
story covered on london fuse . ca : "pride protesters pwned"
16 comments:
amazing article tee!
lol
one of the christian protesters kicked one of the gay activists - cops did nothing because they said that the LOL and J/K signs made the protesters react! Right...and what if a bunch of queers started to kick the christians? No, not our way...but the cops prove that homophobia isn't as powerless as those ancient protesters. Homophobia is where there is power too - the cops!
Trolling IRL! I love it!
LOLERCAUST!
O.K. call me naive, but what does "J/K" mean?
I love how the signs with the word homosexual are apparently quoting the Bible, when the word didn't exist until 1869.
Just kidding... so I think juxtaposing it with the homophobic signs was like saying "Homo sex is sin - just kidding!"
great article and great approach
i am an old straight woman who is going to send a letter to the london police about their ridiculous reaction our taxes are paying their salary.
elsie44
Not only is the word "homosexual" out of context (see posting above), but notice the dots (...) on the placard; you have to wonder how much of scripture the man deleted in order to come up with a quote that suited his agenda.
Not all Christians are like this by the way...please don't paint us all with the same brush. I'm a Christian who goes to Pride in support of the gay community, and believes that Jesus would have hung out with them and loves them too. Just like any large group of people, some among us do really stupid things and their actions do not at all represent every Christian out there. I thought the action of detournement through the activists' posters was well thought out and well placed.
i had looked into this awhile ago and the passage changes depending on which bible you look in. for example, the king james version does not use the word "homosexual" (obviously) but if you google that specific passage, one of the first hits is at biblegateway.com, which gives you the 'new american standard bible' version which does, of course, use the "homosexual". the elipses serve to simplify the passage, because it's really long and it basically says that no one will ever inherit the kingdom of god.
I particularly like the protesters who quote Matthew 6:9, wherein Jesus states that he came not to call the righteous but rather to call sinners. Now, let us think this through. If the GLBT participants in the Pride Festival are sinners and the protesters are righteous, and if Jesus came to call sinners and not the righteous, then it would follow that it's the GLBT participants that Jesus wants and not the protesters! The thing is, I think that they miss the whole point of Matthew 6:9: Jesus, it seems, had little interest in those who set themselves up as more righteous than others.
One of the protestors (one who was kicked) has since posted an update on his facebook account that no charges will be laid by London Police Service because "the man slipped and we don't want media attention".
Hey good story on all that happened. We were laughing our asses off when these guys came over infront of the protesters during the parade. Really made the whole thing better.
The LOL signs are funny, but the article sounds like BS. "this man went up and allegedly kicked one of the young men"
"This man"; "he"; "the kicker said" - does this guy have a name? I mean, you say that a complaint was made to the police, and you report something he said (although what you say he said isn't in quote). But you don't have a name?
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