Anti-gay protesters are countersuing the father of a Marine who died in Iraq, claiming the litigation hampers their free-speech rights.
Shirley Phelps-Roper said she was exercising her First Amendment rights when she and others picketed outside a Westminster funeral with signs that read “Thank God for Dead Soldiers” and “God Hates Fags.”
Albert Snyder, of York, Pa., father of Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder, filed a lawsuit in U.S. Court in Greenbelt on Monday, seeking damages for inflammatory signs held by members of the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan., outside his son?s funeral in March, said his lawyer Sean Summers.
“[Al Snyder and his lawyers] are trying to shut us down, but they are putting themselves in the crosshairs of a raging God,” Phelps-Roper said in a telephone interview with The Examiner on Monday from Topeka.
Fred Phelps, one of the protesters and the father of Phelps-Roper, is the founder of Westboro Baptist Church.
The Westboro Baptist Church members said they believe God is killing military in Iraq and Afghanistan as punishment for America?s tolerance of homosexuals, according to the church?s Web site.
“Their so-called First Amendment rights certainly do not trump someone?s right to have a private funeral,” Summers said Monday. “They tarnished that memory for the Snyder family.”
Summers said more lawsuits from relatives of other military members are expected, and he had received calls from three other military families after the announcement of Snyder?s lawsuit.
Phelps-Roper said the congregation will respond to the lawsuit, which marks the first time Westboro has been sued by a soldier?s family, during a news conference today at Arlington National Cemetery.
President Bush signed into law on Memorial Day a bill that bans demonstrators from disrupting military funerals at national cemeteries.
The elder Snyder could not be reached for comment.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
