3:39 pm - 02/11/2013
Former Westboro Member Poses for NOH8 Campaign
Lauren Drain, a former member of the antigay, antisemitic Westboro Baptist Church, posed for photographer Adam Bouska's NOH8 campaign, calling the church a "cult," and confirming that she still identifies as a Christian, but now stands against "any and all forms of violence, discrimination, bullying, or bigotry directed at someone else due to their personal lifestyle."
"The main reason I posed for the NOH8 Campaign was in direct response to the judgments of the WBC," said Drain in a statement on NOH8's website. "I wanted to show people that despite having grown up within the cult and having spent a good portion of my life on the picket line, condemning our deceased soldiers, reveling in any and all forms of tragedy and simply striving to be hurtful in the name of God; that the WBC is wrong and what I did at the time was wrong!"
Drain was an active member of WBC from 2001 to 2008, when she was excommunicated for questioning WBC's belief system and methodology, according to her official Facebook page. Drain's memior, Banished: Surviving My Years in the Westboro Baptist Church, is due out in March.
Drain's NOH8 photo was released just days after news that two other young members of the WBC had defected from the hate group. Megan Phelps-Roper and her sister Grace, granddaughters of the church's infamous founder Fred Phelps, confirmed Thursday that both have left the church, and issued a statement apologizing for the pain they have inflicted upon others.
I want pizza
"The main reason I posed for the NOH8 Campaign was in direct response to the judgments of the WBC," said Drain in a statement on NOH8's website. "I wanted to show people that despite having grown up within the cult and having spent a good portion of my life on the picket line, condemning our deceased soldiers, reveling in any and all forms of tragedy and simply striving to be hurtful in the name of God; that the WBC is wrong and what I did at the time was wrong!"
Drain was an active member of WBC from 2001 to 2008, when she was excommunicated for questioning WBC's belief system and methodology, according to her official Facebook page. Drain's memior, Banished: Surviving My Years in the Westboro Baptist Church, is due out in March.
Drain's NOH8 photo was released just days after news that two other young members of the WBC had defected from the hate group. Megan Phelps-Roper and her sister Grace, granddaughters of the church's infamous founder Fred Phelps, confirmed Thursday that both have left the church, and issued a statement apologizing for the pain they have inflicted upon others.
I want pizza
Edit: NVM, wrong ex-Westboro member
Edited at 2013-02-11 08:52 pm (UTC)
also I'm getting Super Smash Bros so if you have a Wii, play with meeeeeee
but yes to the other two for defs
How nice of you to do this to prove yourself (and sell your book) rather than to do it because you actually care about the cause...
Edited at 2013-02-11 08:57 pm (UTC)
That comes off as pretty damn insincere to me.
Freaking awesome that she left, though. The whole church is dissolving in front of our eyes.
Oh, apparently it was Jen.
Edited at 2013-02-11 09:04 pm (UTC)
wow. i thought she was too warped to leave. good for her, i hope she lives a life opposite of what it used to be.
I almost kind of get the same feeling from Jael, but I don't see her ever leaving.
That's awesome! I knew there was hope for Megan! You could always tell she was secretly in love with the "sinful" modern world she claimed to hate.