Phelps-A-Thon.com is a Boston-based, pro-

LGBT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term ...

website working to counteract the message spread by the

Westboro Baptist Church The Westboro Baptist Church (WBC) is a small American, unaffiliated Primitive Baptist church in Topeka, Kansas, founded in 1955 by pastor Fred Phelps. Labeled a hate group, WBC is known for engaging in homophobic and anti-American pickets, ...

, (WBC) and their leader,

Fred Phelps Fred Waldron Phelps Sr. (November 13, 1929 – March 19, 2014) was an American minister who served as the pastor of the Westboro Baptist Church, worked as a civil rights attorney, and ran for statewide election in Kansas. He gained nation ...

. It works by channelling passions against WBC into donations for groups targeted by the WBC's pickets. Phelps-A-Thon.com assists groups that are being picketed by WBC in setting up a ''

Telethon A telethon (a portmanteau of "television" and "marathon") is a televised fundraising event that lasts many hours or even days, the purpose of which is to raise money for a charitable, political or other purportedly worthy cause. Most telethons f ...

'' type of counter-protest. Through the "Phelps-A-Thon.com" website, supporters can pledge online to donate a certain amount of money for every minute of WBC pickets against a specific target, usually LGBT or Jewish groups. The longer they protest, the more money they raise for the cause that they are demonstrating against.

History

Phelps-A-Thon.com is run by LGBTQ+ activist, Chris Mason. The website arose when Fred Phelps from the Westboro Baptist Church came to Boston to protest a local production of ''

The Laramie Project ''The Laramie Project'' is a 2000 play by Moisés Kaufman and members of the Tectonic Theater Project (specifically, Leigh Fondakowski, writer-director; Stephen Belber, Greg Pierotti, Barbara Pitts, Stephen Wangh, Amanda Gronich, Sara Lambert, ...

''. The event raised over $4,600 for the pro-LGBT project, Driving Equality. After this first ''Phelps-A-Thon'', people from around the country, upon learning they were going to be picketed by WBC, started contacting Chris, asking for help in setting up their own ''Phelps-A-Thons''. The ''Phelps-A-Thon.com'' website was created in an effort to helps local activists conduct the counter-protests in their own communities. During a trek across the country to promote LGBT equality, Chris Mason, founder of ''Phelps-A-Thon.com'' stopped in Topeka, Kansas to visit the Westboro Baptist Church in October 2010. Concealing his activist identity, he sat down for a conversation with Shirley Phelps-Roper, the daughter of Fred Phelps, to get a better understanding of the group's mission. In a video clip of the interview, Chris asks Shirley her opinion of the ''Phelps-A-Thon'' counter-protests.

References

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External links

Phelps-A-Thon.com

YouTube - Chris Mason interviews Shirley Phelps of the Westboro Baptist Church
Westboro Baptist Church LGBT in Massachusetts