Over at GayPatriot, occasional contributor Average Gay Joe steps into the nasty swamp and takes a stand against bills restricting protests at funerals, specifically in response to the antics of Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist "Church".
He's right.
Philosophically, this is not an issue on which we can bend one inch, even though it puts us in the invidious and awful position of defending one of the world's worst homophobes, one of the most disgustingly-behaved individuals on the planet. We can never forget that the fundamental issue of gay rights is the fact that, though a person's behavior may be considered offensive by others, that in and of itself does not justify denying that person's rights.
Pragmatically, people have been able to write Phelps off for far too long as someone who's just a bit overzealous concerning gays. They need to see once and for all that Phelps is an equal-opportunity hatemonger and that he will be just as vicious towards them for not persecuting the homos as he is towards us.
In short, let Phelps protest -- because it shows him as the evil he is and gays as the evil we aren't.
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