There’s a Petition to Replace Robert E. Lee Statue With GWAR’s Oderus Urungus

We're in a pretty intense time right now between the coronavirus and the Black Lives Matter movement. There have been numerous statues of prominent confederate figures taken down in the last week, and now there's a petition to replace a statue of confederate army commander Robert E. Lee in Richmond, Va. with GWAR's Oderus Urungus.

Danielle Stampe — aka GWAR's Slymenstra Hymen — posted a photo of the concept for the new statue on Facebook on June 10. The next day, Metal Injection received word that a GWAR fan had started a change.org petition to actually carry out the idea. Since then, it has received nearly 50,000 signatures, and it has received the support of GWAR themselves.

"Robert E. Lee is a failed war general that supported a racist cause," the petition reads. "For too long, the city of Richmond has been displaying statues of him and other loser civil war veterans."

"We, the scumdogs of the universe, call on the city of Richmond to erect a statue of great local leader Oderus Urungus in its place. While Oderus comes from the planet Scumdogia, he called Richmond his home, working with the local art community and employing local artists and ladies of the night."

The end of the petition's description features a link to the Richmond Covid-19 Arts and Culture Relief Fund, which you can donate to here.

Urungus was the lead vocalist of GWAR until his untimely death in 2014. We couldn't think of a better… being… to erect a statue of in Lee's place.

On June 4, CNN reported that Virginia governor Ralph Northam had announced that the statue of Lee was going to be removed. Now, several property owners in Virginia have filed a lawsuit to block the removal.