It contradicts a deep-rooted myth.Ī persistent narrative about the Vietnam War is that anti-war protesters of the 1960s and 70s vilified the troops, spitting in their faces upon their return to the United States. The idea that the people rallying outside military funerals are “ Fags Die, God Laughs” adherents of the religious Right, rather than godless leftists, will be a shock for many Americans, especially conservatives. (That the current court is taking on any free speech case probably bodes ill for civil liberties.) Instead, I want to consider for a moment the concept of demonstrating at military funerals-or targeting returning troops in general with protests. I’ll put aside the legal issues involved in this case going to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court ultimately heard arguments about whether his family’s right to grieve in peace should be taken into consideration in constraining the free speech of Phelps’s followers. The father of one Marine killed in Iraq sued after his son’s funeral was protested, beginning a long legal battle. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan is the result of America’s immorality and its tolerance for abortion and homosexuality-the latter supposedly expressed in the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. Last week, the Supreme Court took up a case regarding a right-wing fundamentalist pastor, Fred Phelps, whose anti-gay congregation has taken to protesting at military funerals, carrying signs that read “Fag Troops” or “Thank God for Dead Soldiers.” Phelps doesn’t seem to care whether or not the dead soldiers in question were actually gay. Cross-posted from the Dissent Magazine blog Arguing the World.
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