the funniest protest sign of 2009? yeah it is!

so whoever compiled the top viral videos of 2009 on the huff post is kind of an idiot for including soulja boy, but whoever is moderating the funniest protest signs of 2009 is a genius.

we submitted a photo from the LOL/JK protest(which you can read about, all over again, HERE) and it was accepted!

that means that you can go to the slideshow and vote on the picture, making it the funniest protest sign of 2009.

why is this important? because 2009 was the year of rolling back gay rights in canada and the U.S.

unconfronted homophobia, however, isn't what 2009 was all about and it's important to showcase how creative and awesome the queer community is.

way better than the homophobes, that's for sure. and also way hotter than the homophobes.

so go vote, because pointing out how stupid anti-gay "activists" are is probably the most important thing you'll do on a saturday anyways.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/21/the-funniest-protest-sign_n_292342.html?slidenumber=VqO%2BckU%2FTmk%3D

we will out LOL you- part two

you may recall a story we posted back in july about a really creative protest(which you can read here). unfortunately the protest inspired some nasty behaviour on the other side and one protester was kicked.

well we've been waiting for an update on charges etc and we received an anonymous comment about that the other day:

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".

this sounded kind of strange because it sounds like the protesters don't want the media attention, so we contacted the protesters and the comment is, at its core, correct.

according to the kicked the cops took their evidence to the crown and it was the crown that felt the evidence was insufficient.

as well as insufficient evidence, the crown also felt that pressing charges wouldn't be in the "public interest".

interesting considering the man who was assaulted is part of the public and a crime was committed against him. not only was he allegedly physically assaulted, but i would argue that those homophobes carrying those vile signs were committing a hate crime by being there in the first place.

those homophobes are also totally misrepresenting the bible, which is a conscious decision made on their part to misuse and rewrite the bible for the express purpose of instilling fear in one population and stirring up hatred in another.

it's not in the "public interest"for one human being to see a sign held by another human being saying that they are going to hell. it just doesn't really foster a lot of good feelings.

potentially(especially considering the cops initial reaction to the complaint, that the men had brought the kicking on themselves) the cops maybe didn't investigate thoroughly or maybe they collected shitty evidence because they didn't WANT charges to be laid.

maybe at the end of the day the police decided charging an old man would be more of a hassle than they wanted to deal with, even though it's their job to deal with it.

although it is disapointing that it looks like the police chose to take this avenue it's nice to remember that they've already gotten a shitload of media around this, and police are pretty good at making their own bad media through inaction and apathy so maybe this one will work itself out in the end(especially with the help of a few sign-carrying protesters).

we will out LOL you...

here at pamphleteers we love a lot of things. we also think that most things are the best idea ever. sometimes you see something that is a culmination of all of the things you love most 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 participants 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"