5) The Westboro Baptist Church Has Become A Battleground
There are a lot of utterly bizarre places for Pokémon gyms out there where the game’s usual audience just should not go. Adult clubs, mausoleums, even the White House are just a few examples of sites where trainers can meet and battle with each other. But perhaps the oddest of all is the Westboro Baptist Church, which is now the center of an all out Pokébrawl.
The Westboro Baptist Church, notorious for its hateful protests and inflammatory commentary against the gay community, was apparently noteworthy enough to have its own Pokémon Go gym. Naturally, upon discovering this, an LGBTQ ally took control of it using a Clefairy named “LoveIsLove.”
It was a simple, harmless means of protest that any reasonable person would have assumed to have gone unnoticed by the congregation. But the Westboro Baptist Church is a bit savvier than we might have believed and caught on right away. They immediately went to Twitter to call on their allies to defend their church, and, in a move as confusing as it was funny, nabbed their own Pokémon, Jigglypuff, to win back their gym.
We now have opposing political groups fighting with Pokémon. It’s such a bizarre and hilarious incident that perfectly illustrates just how quickly this game is spreading throughout our culture, and a reminder that sometimes real life can play out like a Saturday Night Live skit.