On Sunday morning, rainbow clad gunmen broke into the Westboro Baptist Church building and opened fire on the congregation. Screaming, “Glad to Gay!” they killed four of the main pastoral staff of the controversial organisation, including founding pastor, Fred Phelps. Three other members of the congregation were also killed in the attack.
In the aftermath, the hashtag #iamwestboro started trending on Twitter and people the world over started publishing pictures of Westboro Baptist’s famous placards in solidarity with the church.
A spokesman for Westboro Baptist said, “those placards aren’t homophobic – don’t seek to delegitimise us without understanding either the context of our belief or our place within American society and history.”
When asked why he was promoting obviously homophobic images on his website, John Smith, of reasonable-views.com, said, “It’s a free speech issue, we must face this outrageous attack on our right to say whatever we like by saying things that we strongly disagree with – just because. And, furthermore, anyone that doesn’t do likewise, is a coward who is giving the attackers what they want. The entirety of the gay community should apologise for this horror – even if they had nothing to do with it.”