What is next with Westboro Baptists protests?

[emilynghiem]

If sports teams have more members come out open as gay,
will the Westboro Baptists start picketing these athletes?

Or do they only target memorial services because these are reverent
so they can grab media attention as the source of disruption?

The evolution of pro sports' acceptance of gays: A timeline - The Week

As more counterprotestors figure out how to shut out the protests of Westboro Baptists at widely publicized funerals and memorial services,

who will the WB target next?

or will the issue of homosexuality and tolerance get resolved,
as the founder of Eharmony Neil Warren wanted to see this issue "figured out"?
http://betabeat.com/2013/02/eharmony-founder-wants-to-spend-10-million-to-figure-out-homosexuality/

EHarmony Founder Wants to Spend $10 Million to ‘Figure Out’ Homosexuality
"But at this point, at this age, I want America to start drawing together. I want it to be more harmonious."

 

[waltky]

Granny says, "Dat's right - God gettin' him fer dat...

Founder of Hateful Westboro 'Church' Ailing
March 17, 2014 - — The Rev. Fred Phelps Sr., who founded a Kansas church widely known for its protests at military funerals and anti-gay sentiments, is in a care facility, according to a church spokesman.

Phelps, 84, is being cared for in a Shawnee County facility, Westboro Baptist Church spokesman Steve Drain said Sunday. Drain wouldn't identify the facility. "I can tell you that Fred Phelps is having some health problems," Drain said. "He's an old man, and old people get health problems." Members of the Westboro church, based in Topeka, frequently protest at funerals of soldiers with signs containing messages such as "Thank God for dead soldiers," and "Thank God for 9/11," claiming the deaths are God's punishment for American immorality and tolerance of homosexuality and abortion.

Westboro Baptist, a small group made mostly of Phelps' extended family, inspired a federal law and laws in numerous states limiting picketing at funerals. But in a major free-speech ruling in 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the church and its members couldn't be sued for monetary damages for inflicting pain on grieving families under the First Amendment. The Southern Poverty Law Center, a civil-rights nonprofit group, has called Westboro Baptist Church a hate group. Nate Phelps, an estranged son of Fred Phelps, told The Associated Press in a phone interview Sunday night that members of Westboro voted Phelps out of the church last summer, apparently "after some kind of falling out."

Rev. Fred Phelps Sr. preaches at his Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas. Phelps, who founded a Kansas church that’s widely known for its protests at military funerals and anti-gay sentiments, is being cared for in a Shawnee County facility according to Westboro Baptist Church spokesman Steve Drain

Nate Phelps, who broke away from the church 37 years ago, said church members became concerned afterward that his father might harm himself and moved him out of the church, where he and his wife had lived for years. Fred Phelps was moved into a house, stopped eating and since has been moved into hospice care, Nate Phelps said. The estranged son is in contact with other family members who are also estranged from the church and said two of them managed to visit his father earlier this month. Drain declined comment Sunday on whether Fred Phelps had been voted out of the church. Drain said Westboro Baptist Church doesn't have a designated leader.

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[Avatar4321]

Hopefully they will turn away from this sort of activity in the future.

 

[Delta4Embassy]

Given their anti-military signs and slogans I'm amazed no active duty types have accidentally on-purpose...Done something drastic yet. I don't envision militant homosexuals going postal, but that's kinda the definition of soldiers. Talk about a demographic you don't want mad at you.