Jon Hurdle, Reuters, October 31, 2007
BALTIMORE (Reuters) – A jury on Wednesday ordered an anti-gay Kansas church to pay $10.9 million in damages to relatives of a U.S. Marine who died in Iraq after church members cheered his death at his funeral.
Church members said Marine Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder’s death was God’s punishment of America for tolerating homosexuality, and they attended his 2006 funeral in Maryland with signs saying “You’re going to hell” and “God hates you.”
The federal jury determined the Westboro Baptist Church, based in Topeka, and three of its principals invaded the privacy of the dead man’s family and inflicted emotional distress.
Albert Snyder, the Marine’s father, testified that his son was not gay, but the church targeted the military as a symbol of America’s tolerance of gays. Matthew Snyder died in combat in Iraq in March 2006.
The jury awarded Snyder’s family $2.9 million in compensatory damages plus $8 million in punitive damages in the first civil suit against the church, which has demonstrated at some 300 military funerals the past two years.
The lawsuit said church Web sites vilified U.S. soldiers, accusing them of being indoctrinated by “fag propaganda.”
YES!! I hope the Westboro bastards lose every appeal and have to pay every fucking dime!
Comment by Joseph52 — October 31, 2007 @ 9:16 pm
Now try to collect from the a**holes. They’ll say they have no money.
I hope the guy takes their church and turns it into a center for gay vets.
Comment by greyhawk — November 1, 2007 @ 11:20 am
I think that Phelps is either gay and taking his self-hatred out on anyone and everyone or seriously mentally ill. He seems to be absolutely obsessed with gays. Either way, I hope that all the other soldiers’ families sue this bastard, too. They may not be able to get any money from this guy, but he would have damages against him rivaling those of the tobacco companies, which should shame him in front of the God he professes to love and everyone in the country.
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