Australia to Phelps: bugger off!
Australia to Phelps: bugger off!:
Australia: According to a gay website, Australian authorities have refused visas to members of Westboro Baptist Church who planned to picket World Youth Day.
Shirley Phelps-Roper, spokesperson for Westboro, told Same Same,If your government would give us a visa we would be there, but they won’t!
I haven't seen this story anywhere else other than on this Australian gay site, but the Westboro Baptist Church did issue a press release on July 12th indicating their intent to go to Australia [PDF]. This reads:
WBC to picket Catholic World Youth Day Sydney, Australia, July 20
Yes, these Roman Catholic priests, bishops, cardinals – all the way up to the Pope – have got a lot of shameless nerve, luring hundreds of kids to a sodomite island thousands of miles away, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, with their reputation of molesting kids! And what kind of idiots – escapees from the funny farm masquerading as parents – will let their kids go to Fantasy Island of the Fags, masquerading as a nation called Australia?
"GOD HATES AUSTRALIA" for criminalising gospel preaching about fags. Just to quote Leviticus 18:22, (Thou shalt not lie with mankind as with womankind; it is an abomination), will get you arrested in fag dominated Australia.
Now, the Phelps are US citizens, and could therefore go to Australia on an Electronic Travel Authority (Visitor) (Subclass 976), assuming picketing is considered to be tourism purposes
(dubious at best). But they announced their intent 8 days before the event they planned to picket, and the Australian Department of Immigration and Citizenship recommends you are advised to apply for your ETA at least two (2) weeks before your proposed date of travel
. They also note that there is a lot of demand for visas due to World Youth Day and suggest applying before June 1st! There are limitations with respect to criminal convictions, but the civil judgement against the church wouldn't fall foul of them. Perhaps the Australian authorities were concerned that they were trying to flee their financial obligations? Without any other sources, it's impossible to even guess.
Australia: A Fag Fantasy Island—Same Same, 18th July 2008; Walls close in on Phelpses—The Topeka Capital-Journal, 4th April 2008.