"Hate group" church to picket Ledger memorial ....

[Hieronymus]

'Hate group' church to picket Ledger memorial

Posted Fri Jan 25, 2008 8:25am AEDT
Updated Fri Jan 25, 2008 8:29am AEDT
Heath Ledger in the award-winning film Brokeback Mountain.

Heath Ledger in the award-winning film Brokeback Mountain. (Supplied)

An evangelical anti-gay US church plans to picket any memorials to Australian actor Heath Ledger, who died this week, because of his portrayal of a gay cowboy in Brokeback Mountain.

It is understood a service will be held in LA this coming weekend, before the Perth-born actor is laid to rest in Australia.

Ledger, 28, was found dead in his New York apartment on Wednesday morning. Prescription medications were found in the residence, but an initial autopsy proved inconclusive.

The actor's family insist his death was "accidental."

Shirley Phelps, of the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas, has told Sydney radio station 2Day FM that they will also picket any attempt to honour Ledger, 28, at next month's Academy Awards ceremony.

"I'm going to stand outside of any public memorial service that he has here," Ms Phelps said.

"And then the other place I'm going to picket him is when they prop him up to worship his dead, rotting carcass further at the Oscars. I'll be right outside by the red carpet."

Ledger won widespread acclaim for his sensitive portrayal of a repressed homosexual cowboy role in the Oscar-winning film Brokeback Mountain.

He had also starred in The Patriot, A Knight's Tale, Two Hands and Ned Kelly.

The Westboro Baptist Church is classified as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Centre in the United States.

It regularly pickets the funerals of soldiers killed in Iraq, claiming the war is God's punishment for tolerating gays.

- AFP

[hisownpetard]

1. A**HOLES!!!!

[Xenotime]

2. We need legislation to shut people like these kooks up.

[dysfunctional press]

3. the legislation that would be needed would be an amended constitution.

unfortunately

[proud2BlibKansan]

7. How far do you want to go with that?

Do you want to lose your rights to speak out too?

Free speech has its drawbacks but I'm sure not willing to give it up.

[pepperbear]

12. I disagree.....

They must have full access to the first amendment, as we ALL must, but then we continue to protest THEM and decry their message. No one who doesn't already agree with them takes them seriously, so they're not doing the conservative cause any good.

[and-justice-for-all]

4. Umm...clue phone for the idiots!...

HE IS NOT GAY, IT WAS A FUCKING MOVIE!!

I thought their invisible friend was all loving?...Oh yeah, I forget you have to join the kult first and submit unto it.

In regards to Ledgers passing. Me and my partner have taken Ambien, I do not know if I have done any sleep walking, but my partner has. He has cut his own hair and roamed around the house in his sleep, rather crazy.

Knowing what we do from taking Ambien, the scenario for Ledger was more then likely the same. He took his Ambien, then while sleep walking, he probably ended up taking either more Ambien or grabbed some of his other percription sleep aides.

[and-justice-for-all]

5. If there was a Hell, it would be made for people like the Phelps kult. nt

[Hekate]

6. I heard the services in LA will be "secret": now I know why. Let the Phelps Family Cult wander...

... the freeways of Los Angeles forever. Visualize them on an endless cloverleaf, never able to find an exit.

Hekate

[Zookeeper]

8. I like that idea!

An excellent visualization, Hekate.

:thumbsup:

[DaveJ]

10. That's what I was going to suggest -- You beat me to it

The other option is to design sophisticated protest-resistant funeral homes...

[DaveJ]

9. (dupe)

[greenvpi]

11. I don't understand church-goers

They just make no sense. I live in the south now so I see a lot of them, but I still haven't figured them out yet. Also, they claim to be for the troops but they picket funerals of dead soldiers. They make no sense.

[Hekate]

13. These aren't normal people: this "church" is one family, and a cult to boot.

The Phelpses are batshit crazy and abusive as hell to their own kids. Please don't conflate the Phelpses with all church-goers.

Welcome to DU!

Hekate