In an amicus brief asking a
federal appeals court to dismiss a challenge to Kansas' ban on gay
marriage, the Westboro Baptist Church claims that gay men and
lesbians face “zero” discrimination in the United States.
Kansas became the 33rd state
to allow gay couples to marry after the Supreme Court refused to
delay implementation of a federal judge's ruling striking down the
state's restrictive marriage ban. Officials, however, continue to
defend the ban in court.
U.S. District Court Judge Daniel
Crabtree has twice refused to allow Westboro to intervene in the
case, but he said that it was welcome to file a friend-of-the-court
brief.
In attempting to intervene in the case,
Westboro claimed that its religious-based interests are not being
represented in the defense mounted by the state: “WBC is entitled
to assert its interests to be protected from being forced to
participate in this soul-crushing nation-destroying state-bankrupting
sin.”
In its response to plaintiffs' motion
for summary judgment, Westboro alleges that gays have little interest
in marrying.
“What they seek – indeed what they
crave – is society telling them their sin is acceptable in the
sight of God. It will be interesting to see how far the courts of
this land are prepared to go in uprooting the entire form of
government and its entire historical jurisprudence, and in plowing
over others' constitutional rights, to accomplish that unholy
mission,” the Topeka,
Kansas-based church wrote.
Westboro, which is best known for
coining the phrase “God hates fags” and picketing the funerals of
fallen soldiers, also warns the Supreme Court not to “ignore all
the empirical evidence that shows that there is zero
discrimination against homosexuals in this country (or any
history of being deprived of educational or economic opportunities);
rather there is simply some very limited scriptural disapproval,
which is not the government's to suppress or outlaw, and cannot as a
matter of law be classified as legally-cognizable discrimination.”
(Brief provided by Equality
Case Files.)