The Kansas Westboro Baptist Church, an anti-LGBT group headed by Fred Phelps and runs GodHatesFags.com, brought its version of Christianity to several Orlando locations on Nov. 10. The group is probably best known for protesting at Matthew Shepard’s funeral, but the group has marched and protested everywhere from a Billy Graham revival to a Federal Courthouse in Iowa.
Three protestors attempted to distract students at University High School in East Orlando, but according to a school security officer, the church members were outnumbered by counter-protestors. Phone calls to the school were not immediately returned and it’s uncertain why the school was targeted. However, it could be because of the school’s Gay Straight Alliance.
The protest came on the heels of a Nov. 6 protest at Alonso High School in Tampa.
A news release from the church announced, “WBC will picket these fag-infested, pervert-run Florida High Schools,” in order to “give your children an opportunity to see what truth looks like.”
The release also quoted Deuteronomy 6:6-9, saying that because it has been disobeyed, “God has given you violent, freakish, worthless, brute-beast children,” and so “God’s curse is on your brats, doomed America!”
Westboro Baptist Church did not only focus on the LGBT community during its visit to Florida. During the same afternoon, members reportedly also held an “anti-Jew” protest at the Jewish Community Center in Maitland and at the University of Central Florida’s Hillel House.
