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.)