I just got a forwarded e mail about this group called Repent America. 4 of the members apparently were arrested in Philadelphia last October for preaching in public. This claims that soon speaking from the Bible against homosexuality will be against the law all over America. Facts?
They were probably arrested for public speaking w/o a license or maybe disturbing the peace.
One needs a license to speak in public? It claimed some group called Pink Angels tried to disrupt them, but they weren’t arrested. It seemed kindof alarmist; I knew this place could clear it up, factwise.
Were they on private property or public? What, exactly, were they doing - just speaking, or doing anything that could be considered causing a disturbance? What else was going on at the time?
I’ve deleted it, but I think it was public property. It was by a Donald Wildmon, if that helps. Sorry I don’t have the link anymore.
There was a case in South Carolina back in the 80’s like this. This wack job and his adolescent son (!) were spouting “Christian” hate on the public streets. While the city (Charleston, IIRC) couldn’t do a lot about that, they were able to stop them from harassing people having lunch in open cafes. The “preacher” and his son were calling women whores and sluts and so forth. The local businessess complained that the wacko was driving away their customers. Eventually the nutjob and son got arrested and were forced to stop harassing people directly. They could continue “preaching”, however.
How about a reliable cite for this Repent America report?
Wildmon?
Isn’t he dead yet?
He’s nuts. He tried to get the 80’s Mighty Mouse cartoon banned because he swore MM was snorting cocaine!
Oh, let’s have some cites, shall we?
http://www.repentamerica.com/pr_outfestpreliminary.html
http://www.iwgonline.org/ktf/archive/2004/november/
http://www.delcotimes.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=13576813&BRD=1675&PAG=461&dept_id=18171&rfi=8
At least one of these cites claims that Repent America is also responsible for the giant fetus posters. There’s something like 400 websites that turned up on Google. It seems that the Repent America people went to a GLBT gathering, intending to preach, hand out literature, and generally harass the gathering. Police moved them to an area further from the gathering, but the group came back to the festival and attempted to disrupt it further. From reading about this group, I’d say getting arrested and charged are one of its objectives, to call attention to itself.
Found their cite. http://www.repentamerica.com
Theres 2 buttons to click, one for christian, the other for non. ooooh
I see Lynn has beaten me to it. So the forward was being deceitful. Thought so.
Paranoia. A christian ACT-UP?
So who are the Pink Angels, and where do I sign up? (if I’m not already a *de facto *member)
The government may place time, place and manner restrictions on speech in public places; i.e., they may require a permit.
Lynn has it. I hadn’t known the name of the fundy group before. But, they received minor coverage. One was interviewed by a local paper and revealed that he was from another state and was using his vacation to come to Philly and scream at homosexuals. The Pink Angels, if memory serves, would surround the fundies and hold up large pieces of pink posterboard to block out their signs.
Coincidentally (or not, I dunno), the AFA’s most recent email update was on this very event, though of course they chose to portray it in a different way. Evidently they have their lawyers on the case, which they claim could send the “Pennsylvania 4” (the term they used; I don’t know, and have not pursued, if anyone else has used the term) to jail for up to 47 years.
Repent America seems to be your garden variety fundamentalist Christian movement aimed specifically at the GLBTAetc community.
As I don’t think the AFA email is copyrighted (and indeed the email - “signed” by Wildmon himself - contains the standard “P.S. Please forward this email to family and friends.”), I’d be willing - “happy” isn’t entirely accurate, given the content of the thing - to post it here and/or email it to anyone who has that much of a desire to see it. Of course, given the nature of the content, posting the letter might be more a thing for the Pit than for anywhere else, and I frankly have no desire to get into (or even start) yet another “Let’s rail against a group that will never find out about this pit thread” broohaha. We’ve done the topic to death, especially on the subject of gay [anything], and there’s not much to be accomplished by calling some random fundie a goat-felcher or whatnot.
Anyone who wants the email sent to them is hereby invited to email me at sadpunk at gmail dot com:)
I found a picture of Michael Marcavage, the apparent leader of those arrested in Philadelphia, and if memory serves he was part of a group of protestor’s at an Ed Rendell rally I attended in Phoenixville in 2002. And yes, the giant blowups of aborted fetuses were prominent. He was eventually escorted away by police, after continually using a bullhorn to try to shout down the speakers (this after Rendell offered him the mike to have two minutes to say anything he wanted to the crowd.)
[chagrin]I really do know appropriate use of apostrophes (or should that be apostrophe’s?), so please remove the extraneous punctuation from “protestor’s”. Thank you.[/chagrin]
To my knowledge there is no plural construction (ignoring constructions involving plural and possessive) in the English language that requires an apostrophe. As such: apostrophes; protestors; [word]s.
For that matter:
its=[a ]property of it
it’s=it is. its property=the property of it. it’s property=it is property.
Because, clearly, TWJWD.
iampunha, it was a failed attempt at irony/humor; i.e., after claiming knowledge of correct use of apostrophes I then claim uncertainty as to the proper form.
Ah, blast it. See enough misuse of apostrophes online that I thought you weren’t sure:)