Church cancels NFL player’s appearance after his tweet of support for Jason Collins

After NBA player Jason Collins came out this week, there was a flood of support for his courageous move. Everyone from his family members to President Barack Obama and the First Lady publicly showed their support.

Of course there were the detractors as there always are, but they were most definitely in the minority. Breitbart blogger Ben Shapiro showed his bigotry by claiming it was no big deal that Collins came out. Shapiro found himself on the same side as the Westboro Baptist Church when they announced they’d picket his games.

And right on cue, a church in Wisconsin has shown their true (intolerant and ignorant) colors. Former Green Bay Packers safety Leroy Butler was scheduled to speak at a Wisconsin area church, but when that church found out he tweeted four words this week “Congrats to Jason Collins,” they cancelled his appearance.

Butler took to Twitter to tell the story.

“Wow, I was schedule to speak at a church in WI, and a member said that the pastor wants to cancel my event, I said ok why?”

“Then I was told, because I said congrats to Jason Collins on twitter, I said really? we have a contract, he said check the moral clause,

“FYI the fee was 8500$, then I was told if I removed the tweet, and apologize and ask god forgiveness, I can have the even, I said no,

“Only god can judge,”

Thousands of New Yorkers put a ring on it!

This morning in New York City, close to 700 couples made history by being the first gay and lesbian couples to marry in the state.

Talk About Equality and the Family Equality Council were there to document these marriage pioneers!

The new law, which passed in New York and was signed by Governor Andrew Cuomo 30 days ago, has broken the barrier to equality for thousands. Couples of every age, size and shape were lined up starting in the early hours this morning, to finally gain legal recognition for their partnerships. We spoke to couples who’d been together for 2 years and couples who’d been together 42 years – who’ve been patiently waiting for this sunny Sunday morning at the New York City Clerk’s office.

Please enjoy some photos from today’s day downtown, followed by a special reception held by Governor Andrew Cuomo at New York’s Dream Hotel. At the reception, the governor honored several individuals and organizations who joined together to eventually win the fight for marriage equality. And finally this evening at the LGBT Center of New York, several organizations including Empire State Pride Agenda, Transgender Legal Defense Network, Human Rights Campaign and Freedom to Marry hosted an enormous wedding reception for today’s newlyweds. Several elected representatives responsible for the passage of marriage equality and special guest, George Takei helped ring in the celebrations!

Also check out this video we put together about Gabriel and Dylan, one of New York’s first married gay couples. More photos, video and information on how to get married in New York available at FamilyEquality.org :

UPDATE: Westboro Baptist Church Gets “Bitchslapped” by Anonymous

photo by Sean Carlson, TalkAboutEquality.com

As we’ve discussed here in the past and as most people in America are frightfully aware, the Westboro Baptist Church “hates fags.”

Last week, there were reports that the group, Anonymous was threatening to take down Westboro Baptist Church’s websites and online presence. Anonymous is most notorious for having taken down the credit card company sites during the Wikileaks scandals, and for their “Project Chanology” attacking actor Tom Cruise and the Church of Scientology. The letter that was publicized last week read:

The time for us to be idle spectators in your inhumane treatment of fellow Man has reached its apex, and we shall now be moved to action. Thus, we give you a warning: Cease & desist your protest campaign in the year 2011, return to your homes in Kansas, & close your public Web sites.

Should you ignore this warning, you will meet with the vicious retaliatory arm of ANONYMOUS: We will target your public Websites, and the propaganda & detestable doctrine that you promote will be eradicated; the damage incurred will be irreversible, and neither your institution nor your congregation will ever be able to fully recover. It is in your best interest to comply now, while the option to do so is still being offered, because we will not relent until you cease the conduction & promotion of all your bigoted operations & doctrines.

Then of course, the WBC replied in kind on their site:

Now comes the fun part…apparently in a play for attention (which WBC is also known for), they made this whole feud up. The actual Anonymous group posted a letter denying participation in this entire scheme. Thanks to Mediaite for spreading the truth!

We know that YOU in fact posted the Open Letter supposedly from Anonymous.

We know that you thrive on attention.

We know that you are short of money.

We know that this is a trap.

We know how you work. You don’t give a flying fart about what your God thinks. But you know that putting God and Fag in a sentence together is guaranteed to make someone angry. You push it. You really push it. But you stay within the law. And then when some poor fool snaps, you sue them for infringing upon your rights.

Some of Anonymous thinks you’re the worlds greatest Trolls. This is bollocks. You’re in it for the money.

No doubt some of us will fall for it. But know this: most of us don’t give a damn. You are shamelessly riding on the /b/andwagon after Anonymous’ recent mass media coverage in order to get more publicity and more idiots to sue.

UPDATE********************

Aparently, Anonymous has decided to “bitchslap” the Westboro Baptist Church by taking down their site. It’s actually been down a few days now, but this morning, this was what could be seen on their site, courtesy of Joe My God: