Editing Westboro Baptist Church (section)

===Anti-gay picketing===
While being filmed by documentary film-maker [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Theroux Louis Theroux], they picketed a local appliance store because it sold Swedish vacuum cleaners, which the church viewed as supportive of gay people because of Swedish prosecution of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%85ke_Green Åke Green], a pastor critical of homosexuality.

The church has picketed, or threatened to picket, productions of ''[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Laramie_Project The Laramie Project]'', a stage play based on the murder of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Shepard Matthew Shepard], whose funeral they also picketed.<ref name = Shepard></ref>

On January 25, 2004, Phelps picketed five churches (three [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic Catholic] and two [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Episcopal_Church_%28United_States%29 Episcopalian]) and the Federal Courthouse for what he said was their part in legitimizing [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Same-sex_marriage same-sex marriages] in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iowa Iowa]. A community response was to hold counter-protests and a multifaith service in the municipal auditorium. On January 15, 2006, Westboro members protested a memorial for [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_Sago_Mine_disaster 2006 Sago Mine disaster] victims, claiming that the mining accident was God's revenge against America for its tolerance of homosexuality.