The funeral protests were going on for years before these assholes ever gave a fuck. Why weren’t they at Matthew Shepard’s funeral?
In part, because Sheppard was murdered in 1998, and the Patriot Guard did not exist until 2005.
Dio, despite your back-pedalling, this is dickish in the extreme:
I’m issuing a warning for being a jerk.
twickster, MPSIMS moderator
ETA: If you want to argue about the Patriot Guard, start your own thread. This one is about Rand’s friend and the people killed with him.
Except that this is exactly the sort of thing that they want - attention. They’re real-life trolls.
If you really want to piss them off, ignore them. Don’t give them any attention at all. No press, no counterprotests, nothing. Admittedly you’ll still want to have people like the PGR helping to keep a physical separation during funerals but otherwise it’s best not to enable their trollery.
RandMcnally - my condolences to you and your friend’s loved ones.
Exactly.
Actually, it’s ostensibly about Fred Phelps, is it not?
I’ll respond to that in your ongoing Pit thread.
What the hell is wrong with you?
Does anything that Phelps says change the facts of this person’s life? Does anything that Phelps says change how you feel about him? Does anything that Phelps says change how this person’s friends and family will remember him?
It doesn’t matter what Phelps does. In fact, your hating Phelps is exactly what he wants. It’s what makes him stronger. He wants your anger, your hate, your outrage, your tears. If you guys get together and scream at him or take his signs or beat him up, Phelps wins.
Ignore him. Let him say what he wants. It means nothing.
Sorry for your loss, Rand. Personally I hope someone has a tragic mechanical failure that causes one of those bikes to go off unpiloted and flatten some Phelps.
As for the rest of the thread:
I honestly don’t see the issue here. Yes, it’s important that people pay attention to the funerals of gays and gay supporters to counter Phelp’s hateful crap.
However, I don’t see any particular reason to force an outright pro-military group into that duty. There was nothing stopping any of us from forming such a group.
Of the Patriot Riders I know (a few from my hometown and environs, the redneckiest conservative part of PA), I called up one (buddy of my dad’s) and asked a few questions, and while he made all the noises about supported DADT etc. as a preamble he said they’d definitely show up to the funeral of any openly gay servicemen killed in the line of duty because “serviceman” overrides “gay” in his opinion. This is a surprisingly common opinion among the rank-and-file once one filters out the evangelicals (fortunately thin on the ground up here).
I’m sorry for the loss of your friend** Rand**.
Dio, this thread isn’t about the Patriot Guard. Yes someone mentioned them but not the OP. You should start a different thread to debate the merits of the Patriot Guard.
My condolences on the loss of your friend, Rand.
It takes a really special kind of ass to protest at a funeral – any funeral – and I’m sorry it’s your friend’s funeral that they chose.
Rand, I’m sorry about your friend. I can’t even imagine what you’re going through.
Unless they also refuse to guard the funerals of gay servicemen and women, I don’t see how that signifies.
I’m so sorry to hear about the loss of your friend, Rand. It’s sad to lose a friend but it seems like in your case the "awww, man…"s keep piling up 
Dio, come on man. The Patriot Guard is a military anti-Phelps-protest group. Not just an anti-Phelps-Protest group. They are not CONTROL to Phelps’ KAOS.
You should be more angry that there’s not a Rainbow Guard doing the same thing for gay funerals.
I am so sorry about your friend, Rand, and especially sorry that a bunch of hateful trolls made the whole thing more stressful for you.
My sympathies on the whole “They didn’t care about Phelps when he was just picketing gay people’s funerals” are on Dio’s side, because it’s true.
But what I wanted to say was 1) my condolences about your friend, McNally, and b) the above would be an excellent exercise for Dykes on Bikes to take up.
I actually just sent their president an e-mail suggesting a program like that.
And I’ve issued a warning to Airman Doors for personal insults. We’re not in the Pit.
twickster, MPSIMS moderator
They didn’t protest my friend’s funeral. My sources (ie: his fiancée) said there wasn’t any incident and you wouldve thought he was a leader of a country by the reception that he got.
Westburo was planning on protest another airman’s funeral who was killed on the same flight as my buddy.
One of our local churches was founded in 1928 and recently ended up amalgamating with another Baptist church under the other church’s name because of the difficulties in dealing with the spillover from having the same name as this oozing chancre of hatred. (What was originally a significant Website was eventually reduced to a single page stating that they were in no way associated with the Phelps “church”.)