Music

This badass busker silenced a homophobic preacher with his guitar

by Mark Teo

There are plenty of ways to combat hate speech. Famously, Mississauga black metallers Panzerfaust took a piss all over the Westboro Baptist Church’s HQ. Panic! At the Disco combatted intolerance when, after their show was picketed, they donated $20 to a human rights organization for every homophobe who showed up. But Sydney, Australia-based busker Axel Winter countered hate with an even simpler method: He used a song. Namely, Cyndi Lauper’s “Girls Just Want to Have Fun.”

While busking outside of a mall, the 24-year-old guitarist encountered an anti-gay preacher who set up shop during Mardi Gras. He, and all the other buskers at the mall, weren’t having any part of it. “A man tried to yell hateful religiously inspired things about gay people in Pitt street mall,” he said after the event. “So, myself and the other buskers moved my stuff behind him and drowned out his negativity. The crowd cheered and sang along and soon enough he was gone… Whether you’re homosexual or transgender or even just confused, you’re still my friend.”

Now that’s what we call taking initiative. Watch a video of the performance below.