John Gard & The "God Hates Fags" Gang - The Secret Behind The Assembly's Rebuke

June 20 has come and gone in Antigo without incident. Slain Marine Lance Corporal John Mattek Jr. was laid to rest before over a thousand mourners with tributes attesting to his genuine goodness and zest for life.

Absent among the crowd: members of the Westboro "God Hates Fags" Baptist Church who had caused a minor media stir by announcing last week that they would picket the funeral. While those who mourned Lt. Mallek were certainly relieved, the no-show was not a surprise. Those who actually follow the antics of this bigoted bunch know they show up about one of three events they announce plans for - and that appears to be largely based on the amount of local reaction and media attention their press releases draw in advance of the scheduled event.

In other words, the "God Hates Fags" gang craves media coverage just like any fading, former Hollywood superstar looking for a comeback would. Yes folks, Fred Phelps is the Norma Desmond of the Radical Right and his gang are always ready for their close-ups. The mission is not to proclaim the truth but to catch as many unsuspecting eyes as possible.

Another of the groups tactics, again from Phelps-watching experts, is the tendency to regularly revisit the scenes of previous successes. The group landed in Wausau two years ago when a local college campus decided to mount a production of "The Laramie Project," a play about the community response to the murder of Matthew Shepard that gave a good chunk of stage time to the Baptist bigots. The counter-protest organized by the local Unitarians practically guaranteed a "if it bleeds it leads" kind of confrontation local TV news teams wet their panties over. Of course a gaggle of the gay haters showed up, and were outnumbered by more than 20-1, all covered by local camera crews and begetting a bevy of news teases to guarantee top viewership "at the 10."

Last week's news release barely caused a blip on the local news scene. Wisconsin Public Radio dutifully allowed a Westboro woman to blather that every major catastrophe from 9/11 and the Asian tsumani to the ever increasing American body count in Iraq was the Almighty's revenge on queer-loving America. But no visuals, no counter-protest was planned. The family and the officiating minister begged for calm and passive response to the planned protest. Even the state Assembly's passage of an official rebuke garnered only a couple of column inches.

So no media blow, no show. Typical.

However, from my vantage point, there may be more to the story of the Assembly rebuke. On June 17, the Wisconsin Assembly unanimously passed at 10 PM in the evening a bipartisan bill introduced by several central Wisconsin lawmakers formally rebuking the Topeka-based Baptists for their plans to disrupt a straight soldier's funeral to push their anti-gay message. Among those who apparently voted "aye" was Majority Leader, Assembly Speaker and announced Congressional candidate John Gard.

Why would Gard, who has openly collaborated with the state's rabidly right-wing Family Research Center of Wisconsin on the timing of the anti-gay Constitutional ban support such a "pro-gay" resolution? Why, for that matter would the Republican-controlled Assembly - who three days earlier had passed a bill allowing medical professionals to follow their personally chosen religious beliefs rather than the Hippocratic oath on the job and just the day before passed another bill cutting off post-exposure birth control for college women across the state to "stem promiscuity" - want to pass a measure that would seem antithetical to their moralistic mindset?

I can think of two reasons. First the Assembly rebuke was what is known as a "sense of the Assembly" resolution. It is an opinion which carries no weight other than the fact the Assembly took time to say it. The Assembly passes these sorts of bills regularly, honoring special local and regional events, anniversaries of organizations and individual years of service to one community or another. The "rebuke" in essence was worth about as much as the ink and paper used to print it. The classic "big whup."

The second reason is as sinister as it is savvy. Bill Clinton savvy even. Remember how the conservatives used to scream about Clinton's ability to triangulate his way to the political center? The Assembly rebuke is a similar stab at positioning. After weeks of passing legislation that poses real harm to real people, the Assembly decided to point out how extreme it wasn't. Taking aim at the Westboro Gang was the Assembly's way of saying "Lookee there! Now that's what wild-eyed extremists look like."

And in one small way the Assembly was right. Fred Phelps and his followers, just like Wisconsin's own Rantin' Ralph Ovadal, are truly wild-eyed extremists. But they're on the same fringe as the folks who wear tin foil antennas on their heads to get better reception of those secret messages from outer space.

The truly dangerous extremists are those who hold power equal to the extremity of their beliefs. John Gard leads an Assembly full of them. The Assembly rebuke of the "God Hates Fags" gang diverted the public eye from scrutinizing the dangerous legislation that body has proposed and passed. And that's why the Republicans joined in on an unanimous vote to for a fleeting second late on a Friday night to support the LGBT community.

With faint friends like that you can see why most queers consider them enemies.