The Westboro Baptist Church, a fundamentalist, unaffiliated Christian group, whose primary motive is to preach alongside aggressively protesting any and every form of homosexual lifestyle, threatened to picket late actor Robin Williams’ funeral earlier this month. The announcement was made on the church’s Twitter page after 63-year-old Williams committed suicide at his California residence on August 11. He reportedly hung himself after suffering from a long bout of depression, trying to fight substance addiction and finding out that he was in the initial stages of Parkinson’s disease.
The voluble Kansas-based group is infamous for staging high-profile protests at the funerals of military personnel, often carrying offensive placards and yelling damnation to gays, lesbians and all individuals and nations that accept them in any way. Not only that, but the group has been cited for spitting on mourners at these funerals and also publicly stamping on the American flag. Apparently, the church pickets military funerals in particular because it believes that American casualties in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are God’s punishment for the country’s tolerant attitude towards gays and lesbians.
Reportedly, the church was definitive about picketing Williams’ funeral because he once portrayed the gay father opposite actor Nathan Lane in the 1996 film entitled “The Birdcage,” which was directed by Mike Nichols.
On August 16, the group put up a message on its Twitter page saying, “Westboro Baptist Church Hopes To Preach In Lawful Proximity To Robin Williams' Funeral – To Warn The Living: Repent Or Likewise Perish.”
Susan Schneider, widow and third wife of Williams, was at the time planning a small and intimate funeral for friends and family in San Francisco. After the repeat threats however, she has been careful not to divulge details such as time and venue of the funeral to ensure Westboro Baptist Church cannot send its members to picket the solemn occasion.
The church is primarily comprised of the members of one particular Kansas-based family though it has managed to draw some followers from other parts of the United States over the years. In one lawsuit against the church, the United States Supreme Court ruled that the First Amendment of the American Constitution in fact protects free speech, tolerates even hateful public speech. Thus the group has continued to stage its trademark offensive protests outside funerals and other events. Several local authorities in America have partially succeeded in using harassment and trespass laws to keep the group’s picketers at a certain distance from funerals and mourners but they have not succeeded in keeping them away completely.
In 2009, the British government used incitement to hatred laws to prohibit members of the church from practicing their faith in the United Kingdom. Mainstream faith groups in Great Britain praised the government for its decisive stance and condemned Westboro Baptist Church for its practices.
Photo Credit: LGBTQ Religious Rights Blog
