For three brief, joyous days the realm of cyberspace was cleansed of the abomination known as www.godhatesfags.com, the antigay [and seemingly antieverything] web site operated by homophobe numero uno the Rev. Fred Phelps. But alas, the blight is back upon the land.
The site was either "hacked" or the Phelps clan failed to pay its renewal to the Internic, the registry for domain names. An anonymous source alerted the owners of GodLovesFags.com with a message Aug. 17. It read in part, "pay close attention to the godhatesfags.com Internic information over the next several days."
The next day, at approximately 4 p.m. Eastern time, the good fags received verification from the Internic that the evil address had been transferred to them. "From the appearance of the headers on the authentication email, the transfer was both authentic and legal," wrote GodLovesFags.com in explaining what happened.
They immediately rerouted traffic from the newly acquired property to their site, which was established in March. It's purpose is to serve as a resource "to share a message of God's love with people who have traditionally been inundated with a message of hate," and to provide links to other information.
News of the switch spread like lightning across the Internet as fag, told dyke, told bi, told queer, and each seemed to post it on a bulletin board. Soon the guest book was filling with comments like: "Whoever hacked the most revolting website on earth deserves a Congressional Medal of Honor! Someone get Bill Clinton on the phone...," Jason.
Of course, not all visitors agreed. Fag Hater left this tasteful reminder, "Turn from your wicked lives before it is too late. Why was Sodom destroyed? Because of its sin of its homosexuality. Turn or burn."
But the blackout of bigotry came to an end all too soon. On the evening of Aug. 20 the owners of GodLovesFags.com posted notice that their Internet provider's uplink had pressured them to cease the rerouting and return control of the domain name to Phelps.
"As much as we dislike Mr. Phelps and his preaching, we realize if we took away his main website, our site's purpose would be diluted." Still, there was a lag for the rerouting to fully take effect and the interim screen allowing access to both sites was up for the weekend.
Once again one could read the beatitudes of Fred Phelps. "'GOD HATES FAGS'¯though elliptical¯is a profound theological statement, which the world needs to hear more than it needs oxygen, water and bread."
Copyright © 1999 Lambda Publications Inc. All rights reserved.
Lambda publishes Outlines, The Weekly Voice of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Trans Community, Nightlines, Out Resource Guide, Clout! Business Report, Blacklines and En La Vida. 1115 W. Belmont 2D, Chicago, IL 60657; PH (773) 871-7610; FAX (773) 871-7609. Web at http://www.suba.com/~outlines/ . E-mail feedback to outlines@suba.com!
