Phelps-A-Thon
Phelps-A-Thon.com is a Boston-based, pro-LGBT website working to counteract the message spread by the Westboro Baptist Church, and their leader Fred Phelps.
History
Phelps-A-Thon.com is run by LGBTQ+ activist Chris Mason, established when Fred Phelps from the Westboro Baptist Church came to Boston to protest a local production of The Laramie Project. The event raised over $4,600 for the pro-LGBT project, Driving Equality. After this first Phelps-A-Thon, people from around the country, upon learning they were going to be picketed by WBC, started contacting Chris, asking for help in setting up their own Phelps-A-Thons. The Phelps-A-Thon.com website was created in an effort to help local activists conduct the counter-protests in their own communities.During a trek across the country to promote LGBT equality, Chris Mason, founder of Phelps-A-Thon.com stopped in Topeka, Kansas to visit the Westboro Baptist Church in October 2010. Concealing his activist identity, he sat down for a conversation with Shirley Phelps-Roper, the daughter of Fred Phelps, to get a better understanding of the group's mission. In a video clip of the interview, Chris asks Shirley her opinion of the Phelps-A-Thon counter-protests.