THERE GOES THE NEIGHBORHOOD
THE homophobes who protested at Matthew Shepherd's funeral attempted to pull off a repeat performance at a memorial service for Fred ("Mr. Rogers") Rogers.
Followers of Kansas minister Fred Phelps - who gained notorieity for picketing and and shouting anti-gay slurs at the funeral for Shepherd, who was murdered for being homosexual - showed up at Pittsburgh's Heinz Hall to mar Rogers' memorial, reports the Pittsburgh Gay News.
Prior to last month's ceremony, Phelps' Web site, godhatesfags.com, promised a large and vocal presence. He also called Rogers a "little wussy" for failing to speak out against homosexuality on his beloved children's show, "Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood." But the turnout was laughably small.
Only six to eight people showed up, one an 8-year-old girl draped in a torn American flag. One grown man held a sign with the TV personality's face on it reading, "Rogers in Hell." Even Phelps himself failed to show for the paltry protest.
Locals who had gotten word of the planned demonstration organized a counter-protest that raised $5,000 for Pittsburgh's Shepherd Wellness Center.
Meanwhile, activists on the other side of the spectrum are attacking Mary Cheney for not speaking out in favor of gays.
"Three years ago, during the 2000 presidential election, current Vice President Dick Cheney's lesbian daughter fell back into the closet the way Michael Jackson's career fell into the toilet - so completely that an industrial plunger couldn't pull it out," writes columnist Michael Alvear.
"Mary Cheney is every person who watched a mugging and didn't stop it," Alvear says. "She's every coward who ran when thugs attacked her friends. She's every woman who turned blind as her brothers got strung up, every woman who turned away when her sisters got slapped to the ground."
Working himself into a rage, Alvear sums up, "Mary Cheney is not just the very worst within our own community; she is the very worst within our own hearts."
The protestors at Rogers' funeral will be dismayed to learn that DKNY is feting a new book, "Gay Dads: A Celebration of Fatherhood," at its West Broadway store tomorrow, but we bet the sissies don't have the nerve to stage a protest in this town.