Father of Dead Marine to Sue Church For Picketing Funeral

On Memorial Day, President Bush signed a bill banning anti-war protestors from national cemeteries during certain times. In the meanwhile, conservative right-wing activists are using the funerals of heroes in the mid-west as hate rallies for anti-gay propandaga, are legislators ignoring it?

A conservative Christian stands on an American flag while attempting to gain attention at the funeral of a U.S. Marine killed in Iraq

(BALTIMORE. Md.) - The father of a United States Marine who died in Iraq plans to sue a Topeka, Kan., church whose members picketed his son's funeral in March, his attorney announced recently.

Albert Snyder filed suit in U.S. District Court in Maryland, his lawyer, Sean Summers said. Snyder's 20-year-old son, Lance Cpl. Matthew A. Snyder, was killed in a non-combat vehicle accident in Iraq's Al Anbar Province March 3rd.

According to Summers, about 10 members of the Westboro Baptist Church demonstrated at Snyder's March 10th funeral, chanting derogatory slogans and holding picket signs that said "God Hates Fags."

The church's Web site claims that the "modern militant homosexual movement (poses) a clear and present danger to the survival of America" and that it pickets troop funerals "to warn the people who are still living that unless they repent, they will likewise perish."

Members of the Westboro Baptist Church are long-time anti-gay protesters. Before launching their protests at the funerals of American troops killed in Iraq, they regularly picketed the funerals of gay people and those who died of AIDS.