As thousands of Michigan, Louisville, Witchita State and Syracuse college basketball fans made their way into the Georgia Dome on Saturday, they were confronted by the unmistakable anti-gay picket signs frequently paraded outside of LGBT events and U.S. military funerals by Westboro Baptist Church.
Around eight members of the Westboro Baptist Church protested in Atlanta over the weekend outside of the Georgia Dome during the NCAA Basketball Final Four tournament. Shirley Phelps-Roper is the matriarch of Westboro Baptist Church and daughter of church founder Fred Phelps.
“You need to have a case study. His name is Magic Johnson,” Phelps-Roper said. “Just use him as the beginning point. Remember, he did some Final Fours. The end of that matter is a fag son, he's got AIDS, and they're all headed to hell.”
It's Michigan versus Louisville on Monday and sports fans are flooding Atlanta's streets — some lucky enough to have tickets to the big dance, others packed like sardines into bars with big screen TVs.
And, of course, there are those avoiding all the chaos and watching the Final Four in the comfort of their home, with their girlfriends.
Westboro Baptist Church, infamous for its “God Hates Fags” protests, will return to Atlanta in April for a series of protests, including plans to picket outside of the Georgia Dome for the NCAA's “Final Four” college basketball championship.
The NCAA basketball championship tournament protest is slated for April 6. WBC will also protest outside of World Changers Church International in Atlanta, Beulah Missionary Baptist Church in Decatur, and Basilica of The Sacred Heart of Jesus in Atlanta on April 7, according to its website.
Check out the protest schedule (and the church's usual convoluted reasoning) from the WBC website: