Panic! At The Disco turn Westboro protest into fundraiser
Panic! At The Disco turned a Westboro Baptist Church picket into a fundraiser for the Human Rights Campaign by pledging $20 for every protester who showed up at their concert on Sunday night (20Jul14).
Hours before taking to the stage for their Kansas City, Missouri tour stop, the rockers discovered the religious extremists were planning a protest outside the venue, and they decided to put a positive spin on the demonstration.
The musicians announced on Twitter.com that for every member of
Westboro to show up at the protest, the band will donate $20 to the
Human Rights Campaign (HRC), a civil rights organization which
works to achieve lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT)
equality.
Following the concert, they took to the microblogging site to
reveal how much money they raised for the charity, writing, "Thank
you (Westboro Baptist Church) for the update on the total amount
you donated to @HRC today. $20X13= weak. We're going to make it an
even $1,000. We will also be donating 5 per cent of our total merch
(merchandise) sales from this show to @HRC."