A group of Westboro Baptist Church protesters brought their signature brand of in-your-face activism to Hollywood today, chanting and waving signs with messages like "GOD H8S FAGS" at tourists and insiders making their way to this year's Oscar ceremony.
The protest was situated on the corner of Sunset Boulevard and N. Highland Ave., at the edge of the daunting security perimeter surrounding the awards show.
"We're here right now at the Oscars because the power brokers of Hollywood … and the news media, in the main, is in kind of a slave mentality to the militant fag agenda," said Steve Drain, a protester representing Westboro, who was holding a sign that pictured two Academy Awards statuettes engaged in highly suggestive foreplay.
Westboro's virulent brand of anti-homosexual activism has attracted condemnation from gay-rights and Christian groups alike. In December, a petition to designate Westboro a hate group following the church's threats to picket funerals in Newtown became the most popular ever to appear on the White House's "We the People" digital platform."
Drain said there was no specific film this year that prompted the protest. "I kind of call it creep weed, over time," he said. "There isn't one particular year where the whole entertainment industry has sort of put their foot down and obviously pushed that filth down our throat, but we're talking about gay themes and television shows and films softening the idea that [homosexuality is] some type of perversion, some type of sin."
Any event with the national profile of the Oscars invites protests, and Westboro wasn't the only conservative Christian group on the scene. Across the street, Ruben Israel of OfficialStreetPreachers.com echoed the criticism of Hollywood as a hotbed of sin and iniquity, but said he disagreed with Westboro's decision to single out homosexuality for special condemnation. Asked if he felt comfortable sharing the stage, as it were, with such a militant group, he said, "I've been coming here for over three decades. They're just new on the block. They're just a Johnny-come-lately."
On Orange street, husband-and-wife preachers Nabeel and Carol Salman of Redondo Beach, CA, carried a megaphone and a sign quoting the Gospel of John. They expressed dismay at Westboro's use of offensive language. "When you say 'fag,' that's derogatory. That's not our style," said Mrs. Salman.
"They are putting [up] very harsh signs, with hate," Mr. Salman added. "Jesus never came for hate. He came with love."
Drain defended the group's use of the word "fag" on Biblical grounds. "We live in a sound-byte generation," he said. "You're only going to quote five words that I say in your article. You gotta get after it. Fag is a short word, it's impactful, it's meaningful and it's Biblically accurate. A fag is a firebrand. It's a little stick that starts a fire…. And what fags do is that they burn quickly, they ignite quickly, they burn hot, and they burn for a long time. And we say that fags are fueling god's wrath by the way they live their lives. It's a good metaphor. The metaphor in the scripture is actually a firebrand, and a firebrand and a fag are exactly the same thing…. But fag is a shorter word to put on a sign."
It's been a busy day for Westboro members. This morning, some were seen "peacefully" protesting in Malibu, according to a report from Patch Malibu. Though the group came out "primarily for the Oscars," according to Margie Phelps, daughter of the church's founder Fred Phelps, they doubled up by picketing in front of the reconstructed Malibu Presbyterian Church, one casualty of a 2007 wildfire that Phelps characterized as divine punishment.