Westboro Baptist Church protesters to picket memorial for Lance Cpl. Brandon Garabrant
Protesters from the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas plan to picket the memorial service for Lance Cpl. Brandon Garabrant, who was killed by a roadside bomb while serving in Afghanistan.
The Southern Poverty Law Center calls the Westboro Baptist Church “arguably the most obnoxious and rabid hate group in America.” The group is known for its virulent, homophobic rhetoric typified by its slogan, “God Hates Fags.”
In a flyer announcing the protest, the group wrote, “Lance Cpl. Garabrant gave his life for the Constitutional right of WBC to warn America. To deny us our First Amendment rights is to declare to the world that Lance Cpl. Garabrant died in vain, and that America is a nation of sodomite hypocrites.”
The memorial service for Garabrant will be held Saturday, July 5 in Peterborough at ConVal High School where he graduated in 2013. Garabrant will then be buried at the New Hampshire Veterans Cemetery in Boscawen.
