Some of the most hated people in America stood on the corner of Brooks and White streets in East Boston Friday morning, doing some hating of their own.
The Phelpses - the Topeka, Kan., family who have held up "Pray for More Dead Soldiers" and "God Hates Fags" signs at hundreds of soldiers' funerals - were in town.
They were there to protest a high-school theater production of The Laramie Project, about the 1998 murder in Wyoming of gay student Matthew Shepard. The play was all the way down in Canton, but if you believe 9/11 and dead soldiers are God's retribution for homosexuality, and you happen to find yourself in gay-loving Massachusetts, you can't limit yourself to just one stop.
So the first of the day's six pickets began at 7 a.m., minutes from the airport, at East Boston High. Shirley Phelps-Roper led the group, which included her brother, Jonathan, and two of her 11 children - Isaiah, 20, and Jonah, 11. They all belong to the 70-member, mostly-Phelps-family Westboro Baptist Church.
A couple dozen police officers stood by to make sure nobody hurt them.
"Does this school have a gay-straight alliance?" Shirley asked, pulling out her "America is Doomed" sign and putting a heel on the US flag hanging from her hip.
Her jolly, moon-faced brother broke off chanting "You're going to hell" to answer: "Well of course they do, silly goose!"
For prophets of Armageddon, the Phelpses certainly are chipper.
Across the street, about 50 protesters held signs that read "God Hates Hate" and "WBC, Do You Need a Hug?"
Shirley and the others yelled out all kinds of unprintable things, including graphic antigay slurs.
Do they worry about exposing their young children to this kind of talk? No.
"I had my kids out here when they were in strollers," Jonathan said. "Three of my kids still do this. One of them left this world."
His son is not dead. It's worse: He's "living a life of lust."
"Oh, don't be sorry for me; I'm happy," Jonathan said chirpily. "He's the one going to hell. But he's not gay. It's just average, run-of-the-mill fornication."
Take away the military funeral protests, and Westboro Baptist would be just another group of evangelical haters like the ones we saw shouting slurs at the State House during the debates over gay marriage. But those folks haven't earned the widespread contempt the Phelpses attract. It's one thing to despise gays and tell them they're going to hell. But when you turn your ire on soldiers and the US flag, even Fox News hates your guts.
A school bus rolled by and a boy held up a middle finger.
"God hates fags," Shirley shouted. "God hates fag-enablers. Therefore, God hates Massachusetts."
The protesters across the street sang "America the Beautiful."
"We'll sing our version," Jonathan said. "It's a dandy."
He and his comrades harmonized beautifully: "Oh, wicked land of sodomites, your army's full of fags. You'll never win another war, they're coming home in bags."
"Toe tags!" yelled little Jonah.
The Phelpses believe President Obama is not just a bad guy, but the antichrist. During last year's campaign, it was clear this view was shared by a distressingly large number of people. But again, the Phelpses go just a little further.
Because of President Obama, Shirley says, "Shortly, this nation is going to be eating their babies. This is fo rizzle" - for real.
Standing on this corner, listening to Shirley channel Snoop Dogg in the service of her kooky beliefs, I was grateful for her craziness. By being such high-profile nut-jobs, Westboro Baptist gives bible-thumping homophobia a bad name.
And from where this Massachusetts enabler sits, that's a good thing. Fo rizzle.
Yvonne Abraham is a Globe columnist. Her e-mail address is abraham@globe.com 
