By PINKNEWS.CO.UK
Added: Thu, 19 Apr 2007 23:00:00 UTC

Thanks to Ivan Bailey for the link.

Reposted from:
http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-4175.html
http://www.godhatesamerica.com/
http://hopeandpolitics.blogspot.com/2007/04/phelps-kansas-westboro-baptist-church.html

19th April 2007 14:31
PinkNews.co.uk writer

The Westboro Baptist Church has announced they will picket the funerals of the 32 victims of the shooting spree at Virginia Tech.

The church are notorious for their anti-gay views, and often protest at the funerals of American military personnel killed in Iraq.

"The evidence is they were not Christian. God does not do that to his servants," a church spokesperson told CBS news.

On Monday morning, a lone gunman shot two college students in their dorm rooms.

Around two hours later, at approximately 9am, he killed a further 30 people in a classroom building at Virginia Tech, a college of higher education in the United States.

The gunman has been identified as 23-year-old Cho Seung-hui, who shot himself before police could arrest him.

The Westboro Baptist Church first gained notoriety for their noisy picket at the funeral of Matthew Shepard.

Their extreme homophobia has led them to protest at the funerals of servicemen and women killed in action.

Their decision to protest at the funerals of the victims of Seung-hui's gun rampage is designed to garner more publicity for their belief that America is doomed because it tolerates homosexuality.

The practice of picketing military funerals has caused outrage in America, with Congress passing a law, Respect for America's Fallen Heroes Act, which President Bush signed in May 2006.

However, that federal bill only covers the 122 national cemeteries.

TAGGED: HATE, RELIGION