THE HIGH ROAD

First Westboro Counter-Protest Since Phelps’ Death Displays “Sorry For Your Loss” Sign

Screen Shot 2014-03-22 at 11.19.55 AMMembers of the Westboro Baptist Church have vowed to continue preaching their virulently anti-gay message in the wake of their founder Fred Phelps’ death earlier this week, and as planned, showed up to protest Lorde’s concert in Kansas City, Missouri last night.

Lorde took to Twitter earlier this week to encourage fans to stage a counter-protest outside of the Midland Theatre before her show. Local NBC affiliate KSHB reports that more than 20 counter-protesters obliged, standing across the street from the WBC congregation, holding a sign that read “sorry for your loss.”

The compassionate message was obviously lost on WBC member Steve Drain — he told KSHB “I don’t even know what they’re saying.”

“We realized that it wasn’t so much about antagonizing them,” said Megan Coleman, a counter-protester who helped make the sign, “but sending out the countered safe that we are here for people who need that message and need that positivity.”

Nathan Phelps, the estranged son of Fred Phelps who became a gay rights activist after leaving the church in 1976, posted the news to his Facebook page last night with the message “I love the world when I see this.”

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