Paddy Power send ‘Rainbow Laces’ to gay-hating Westboro Baptist Church

By Rich Leigh on Wednesday, September 10, 2014

The gay-bashing, picket-waving nutters at Westboro Baptist Church have been sent some rainbow shoelaces as part of a campaign to ‘kick homophobia out of football’ by bookies Paddy Power, in partnership with gay rights group Stonewall.

The shoelaces have been sent along with the below letter, which is (mostly) wonderful:

Latest batch of #RainbowLaces ready to go across the pond… pic.twitter.com/gellV73Xvt

— Paddy Power (@paddypower) September 10, 2014

The first thing that springs to mind about this element of the wider campaign (which I otherwise like) is that this has nothing to do with football. Paddy Power is simply going after a group renowned for homophobia (that likely know and care very little about football/soccer) in a bid to crowd-please.

Secondly, I hate all religion equally. Every last one of the 3,000+ deities worshipped by fact-dodgers can, frankly, do one. But, at least WBC is consistent in its blind following of text written, translated, re-written, translated and then probably re-written a load more times by people that *weren’t actually there*.

The Bible – remember, the alleged word of one of the aforementioned gods – does preach against homosexuality. Plenty of examples here, going against Paddy Power’s assertion that WBC has a ‘misguided interpretation of God’s will’. So I say – why stop with the WBC, just because the group is an easy, media-friendly, Twitter-pleasing target? Get some of these multi-coloured badboys to the Pope and other prominent religious figures. Like any right-minded person, I abhor homophobia, but also dislike people that pick on the kid everybody already hates just to fit in and make a point.

Here’s the letter in its entirety in case you can’t read it properly from the tweet above:

Dear hate-filled vermin,

There is no hell so we cannot take any satisfaction in the eventual damnation of your souls. The only consolation is that your odious doctrine of hate is on an inevitable road to defeat at the hands of the truly important human values of compassion, reason and love.

One day, your poisonous bile will be long forgotten, the world will continue to turn and your descendants will be blissfully unaware of the enmity you once peddled due to a misguided interpretation of God’s will. And quite possibly, they’ll be in gay relationships. Suck on that.

Please find enclosed some Rainbow Laces should you decide to abandon your futile efforts before their eventual demise.

Lots of (heterosexual, homosexual, platonic and all the other kinds of) love,

The Rainbow Laces campaign x

For completeness, here’s a much more relevant effort on Paddy Power’s part if its aim is indeed to ‘kick homophobia out of football’, featuring a number of Arsenal players: