The other day, several prominent Fundamentalist Christian pastors/anti-gay luminaries went to Washington DC, attempting to get arrested for preaching against gayness. After years of insisting that extending hate crimes laws to include members of the LGBT community would stifle their rights to speak out against homosexuality, it was natural, once the Matthew Shepard hate crimes bill was signed, that they would feel the need to test out their theory. (They, of course, could have saved themselves some gas money by simply reading the bill, but did you hear how many pages it is? It doesn’t have any pictures either.)
So, there they went. There was a lot of preaching about how bad gays are, the usual thing. Michael covered this in detail the other day. And, of course, nobody was arrested. (Because the law doesn’t say what these Christianists say it says!)
But here’s the fun part that didn’t get reported as widely. Cue Dana Milbank:
Instead of getting arrested, the ministers got something else: A couple of dozen gay activists, surrounding them with rainbow flags and signs announcing “Gaga for Gay Rights” and “I Am a Love Warrior.” By the end, the gay rights activists had taken over the lectern and the sound system and were holding their own news conference denouncing the ministers.
“We’re here to say, my love is legit!” announced David Valk, an organizer of the National Equality March for gay rights.
Another speaker, Ian Thomas, went to the microphone and announced: “I was created a bisexual male. Just like many figures in the Christian Bible, I like boys and girls!”
Cass turned angrily to the AV guy. “We’re not on the clock, are we?” He turned with equal anger to Valk. “You guys gonna help us pay for the microphones?”
The gay activist smiled. “God,” he said, “works in mysterious ways.”
In this case, God took the form of Chuck Fazio, from DC Podiums. Fazio was hired by the religious conservatives to provide the sound system for the event, but upon learning of their cause, he decided to donate his proceeds to the gay rights activists and to give them a chance at the microphone before shutting down the amplifiers.
Oh, snap! How awesome is that? I just want to walk up to Gary Cass and Rick Scarborough and pinch their cheeks, repeating “WHO got their frown turned upside down? WHO got their frown turned upside down?”
So anyway, wingnuts, good game!
(h/t Jeremy)
