In 1998, Westboro Baptist Church spread a reaction of anger across the nation when they picketed the funeral of Matthew Shepard. Recently Westboro Baptist Church has mainly protested soldiers’ funerals, but before that, they were known for picketing the funerals of gay people or people who they thought may be gay. Countries that they have protested in include Canada, Jordan, and Iraq (A History of Anti-Gay Hatred). Westboro Baptist Church has engaged in picketing across America and some foreign countries since 1991 (Brief Bio of Pastor Fred Philips). They consider their church as an “Old School” Baptist Church (About WBC). The founder of the Westboro Baptist Church is Fred Phelps and most of the church is composed of his 13 children, 54 grandchildren, and 7 great grand children. The Westboro Baptist Church is based in Topeka, Kansas and it had its first public service in 1955.
The public frowns upon their activities, but nothing can be done legally to permanently stop the protests. Currently this group still pickets events such as funerals, churches, and the gay community in general. One of the best examples for this would be the picketing of funerals. This was and still is a huge controversy of the law against moral rights and respect. This group was brought to the Supreme Court where they ruled that the picketing could not be legally stopped because it is a violation of the members’ first amendments. For the past twenty years, a group called Westboro Baptist Church has picketed multiple events and establishments across the country.
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