Toronto Sun
From Project Chanology - Toronto Division
Anti-gay protesters fail to show in T.O.
By Bryn Weese, Sun Media
Friday August 8, 2008
What happens when protesters being protested don't protest?
At least that's what appeared to happen yesterday outside The Cameron House at Queen and Cameron Sts. at 7 p.m.
More than 100 people turned out to protest Fred Phelps and his Westboro Baptist Church, who were supposed to be there protesting a play about Phelps.
The Westboro Baptist Church is infamous for anti-gay protests at, among other things, the funerals of people who have died from AIDS.
They had planned -- and even advertised on their website godhatesfags.com -- on protesting one of the city's Summerworks theatre festival plays called "The Pastor Phelps Project."
On their website, the group claims, "The Pastor Phelps Project is a tacky bit of filthy sodomite propaganda with no literary merit and zero redeeming social value, masquerading as legitimate theatre."
"God Hates Canada -- Land of the Sodomites," the press release states.
But Phelps and his followers, who at times number more than 70, were a no-show last night in Toronto.
It could not be confirmed last night whether they were turned away at the border, but reports from Western Canada indicated a small number of them were denied entry in Manitoba en route to a different protest.
On Queen St. W. last night, with or without Phelps, the crowd made it known his views weren't welcome.
"He does it for attention, he's an attention whore," charged 23-year-old Spacko, a member of Anonymous, a group that usually protests Scientology.
"I wanted to speak out against everything he stands for, because what he is doing is absolutely wrong."
Spacko said he is aware of the irony, that by him protesting Phelps, he's giving Phelps the attention he wants.
