Protesters, counter protesters — the best action at the TicketCity Bowl was outside the stadium
Jan 2, 2012, 2:23 PM EDT
Well, the TicketCity Bowl is over — Houston beat Penn State 30-14. You may have heard that the infamous anti-gay fun bunch at the Westboro Baptist Church picketed the event, gathering in a park adjacent to the Cotton Bowl with all manner of crude and objectionable signs and slogans. (Basically they were calling out Penn State for the child abuse scandal, but predictably, their message veered way off the rails).
But what’s been less reported is that there was a counter demonstration, as a group calling themselves Occupy WBC (pictured) formed up near the WBC protesters, displaying signs of their own and staging male-on-male makeout sessions right in front of the Westboro Baptist Church people.
The WBC members stood in a barricaded area, while the counter-protesters stood about 10 feet away, also barricaded in, at least at first A guy wearing a bushy fake beard and mirrored shades — he would only give his name as “A.B.” — carried a huge sign that read “Occupy the WBC.” At one point he began shouting at the Westboro group through a megaphone.
“Shirley!” he said to Shirley Phelps-Roper, WBC’s spokesperson. “We’re a little upset that all the cute girls are facing away from us. Can you get your daughters to turn around?”
As he spoke, the Beastie Boys’ “Hey Ladies” started to blast from the speakers near his feet. “This goes out to the Westboro girls!” he announced. The Westboro girls ignored him. Occupy The WBC, a Houston-based group not affiliated with Occupy Dallas, plans to follow the WBC around the country staging counter-protests with loud music, gay make-outs and “recitations of graphic homoerotic novels” at every stop, A.B. told us.
There were also some protesters from Occupy Dallas, a splinter group of the Occupy Wall Street movement. Then there were Penn State fans, many of whom had to walk by all the groups to get to the stadium for the game. It all must have been very entertaining — the TicketCity Bowl should have charged extra.
And don’t forget, the entire show resumes at Cowboys Stadium on Jan. 6 for the Cotton Bowl.
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Occupying the Westboro Baptist Church’s Protest at the TicketCity Bowl in Fair Park [Dallas Observer]
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- lewp - Jan 2, 2012 at 6:49 PM
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Just an FYI here to clear up some potential confusion. The Cotton Bowl used to be played at the Cotten Bowl in Fair Park where the State Fair of Texas is each year. The new Cotton Bowl is the bowl game played on January 6th and is at Jerry World, or Cowboys Stadium.
So there is a Cotton Bowl, and a Cotton Bowl…two different places.
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- lewp - Jan 2, 2012 at 6:50 PM
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Correction****
Just an FYI here to clear up some potential confusion. The Cotton Bowl used to be played at the Cotton Bowl in Fair Park where the State Fair of Texas is each year. The new Cotton Bowl is the bowl game played on January 6th and is at Jerry World, or Cowboys Stadium.
So there is a Cotton Bowl, and a Cotton Bowl…two different places.
I misspelled a word…sorry.
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- chunkypants - Jan 5, 2012 at 12:25 AM
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Interesting perspective on the Phelps… And Dallas here at this dude’s blog. WhereMcCarverAt.com
