Anti-gay church targets Boston Latin School

Members of the Westboro Baptist Church will demonstrate in Boston next week.

Members of Kansas' anti-gay Westboro Baptist Church (WBC) will hold a demonstration outside of Boston Latin School, 78 Avenue Louis Pasteur, for a half hour on the morning of June 7.

"WBC will picket the fag-infested and pervert-run Boston Latin School," read a press statement released by the Church on May 25, which called the students "violent, freakish, worthless, brute-beast children."

In protest of the Church's presence at the school, an organization called Phelps-A-Thon is asking for donations to benefit the Boston Latin School's Gay-Straight Alliance. During the Church's 30-minute protest (from 7:15 a.m. to 7:45 a.m.), participants can pledge a donation for every minute the group will be demonstrating. "We are using Phelps' own hateful message to raise funds for a good cause," reads the group's website, phelps-a-thon.com. Founded by Chris Mason, the group tracks the WBC's demonstrations across the country and urges community members of the towns in which the WBC pickets to donate to pro-LGBT causes. The website reports that after every protest, Phelps-A-Thon sends a thank-you card to Fred Phelps, head of the WBC, informing him of how much money was raised for LGBT rights. "We can turn these hateful words into positive change," phelps-a-thon.com reads.

The Westboro Baptist Church is well known for staging protests and picketing at the private funerals of American soldiers with signs that read "God Hates Fags," "Semper Fi Fags," "Fag Troops," and "Thank God for dead soldiers." Headed by Fred Phelps, the Church is also known for its repeated protests desecrating the American flag and its criticisms of LGBT people and those living with HIV/AIDS. They have also protested against Jewish institutions.

Perhaps most notoriously, members of the Westboro Baptist Church demonstrated at the funeral of Matthew Shepard, who lost his life as the result of an anti-gay hate crime in Fort Collins, Colo., in 1998. Shepard was 21 years old.

"The Westboro Baptist Church is a hatemongering organization whose talents seem limited to making signs and showing up for protests at inappropriate places," said Bonnie Rosenbaum, Deputy Director of Keshet, a grassroots organization dedicated to creating a fully inclusive Jewish community for LGBT Jews in the Greater Boston area. "Their actions disrespect our soldiers, our houses of worship, and our schools."

Following a demonstration at the 2006 funeral of Matthew Snyder, a Marine killed in Iraq, Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church were accused of invasion of privacy, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and civil conspiracy. According to a U.S. District Court opinion issued by Judge Richard Bennett, in Baltimore, Phelps and his followers attended the funeral "without invitation in order to express their views against homosexuality, Catholicism, and the military." Petition Snyder v. Phelps aims to undo a previous ruling in Phelps' favor and state that his actions and website content (on godhatesfags.com) are not in fact protected by the First Amendment. The petition will be argued this fall before the Supreme Court.

"Phelps and his family members (that's most of his church) have the right to demonstrate on a public sidewalk as long as they are peaceful and don't block the sidewalk. They can hold offensive signs just as anti-abortion protesters can hold signs and pictures that are offensive to many," said Sarah Wunsch, a Staff Attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Massachusetts. "The ACLU detests the views Phelps and WBC spew out.

"However, the First Amendment protects all kinds of speech, including speech we hate. If offensiveness or obnoxiousness were the standard, there would be no freedom of speech. We cannot allow the government to decide what speech is acceptable and what speech is not. Many in the lesbian, gay and transgender communities recognize that, as detestable as Phelps is, it is right for the ACLU, which has fought a long hard fight for gay rights, to defend the First Amendment and oppose censorship of even Phelps' speech," Wuncsch said.

Despite ongoing legal battles, local LGBT organizations are voicing their displeasure at Phelps' plans to picket Boston Latin. "Phelps and his followers represent the sickest and most vicious anti-gay advocates in this nation," said Arline Isaacson, co-chair of the Massachusetts Gay & Lesbian Political Caucus. "The fact that they focus instead on tactics of fear and intimidation proves that their true interests are in ungodly degradation and hate. And as a result, they condemn themselves to lose."

The Westboro Baptist Church's appearance at the Boston Latin School will come after scheduled demonstrations at the Grace Chapel in Lexington, the Cathedral of the Holy Cross, and the Sheraton Boston Hotel.

Requests for comment from the Boston Latin School were not returned in time for publication.