The Local newsletter is your free, daily guide to life in Colorado. For locals, by locals. Sign up today!
Westboro Baptist Church, the Kansas-based group with a website at GodHatesFags and notorious for showing up at soldiers’ funerals, is planning a busy few days of protests in Colorado, starting at Boulder High School this afternoon.
Why?
That's only $1 per issue!
Their site reads: “These students have been raised on a steady diet of God loves everyone, God is a liar, and it is OK to be gay. Result: A generation of violent, simple sluts and fornicating clods.”
Named for Fred Phelps, the leader of the church, a Phelps-a-Thon seeks to counter the hate by asking people to make small donations of money for every minute Westboro spends picketing in Boulder—or at any other event, reports Westword. Any money raised will go to the high school’s Gay/Straight Alliance.
Organizers of the counter-protests are urging participants to keep their cool, as Westboro makes its way from Boulder to Denver in the coming days, notes 7News.
A report from the Anti-Defamation League has found that many Westboro activists are lawyers, well-versed in their free-speech rights. The report contends that the church “may bait groups to take action against them, which, in turn, could result in the group bringing lawsuits against towns that they believe did not offer them adequate protection.”