Your gift is matched 3X today!

Your sustaining monthly support to strengthen our nonprofit newsroom will be TRIPLED today.
Logged in as
Audience-funded nonprofit news
radio tower icon laist logo
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
Subscribe
  • Listen Now Playing Listen

This is an archival story that predates current editorial management.

This archival content was written, edited, and published prior to LAist's acquisition by its current owner, Southern California Public Radio ("SCPR"). Content, such as language choice and subject matter, in archival articles therefore may not align with SCPR's current editorial standards. To learn more about those standards and why we make this distinction, please click here.

Arts & Entertainment

Westboro Church Plans To Protest Cory Monteith's Funeral

corymonteith.jpg
Cory Monteith at the 18th Annual Critics' Choice Movie Awards in January 2013. (Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)

One year ago, Congress defunded public media. Now that we're 100% community funded, please become a sustaining member or increase your existing membership today.

While most people were taking to Twitter to mourn the sudden death of Glee star Cory Monteith, the Westboro Baptist Church brazenly announced their delight that the actor was dead.

Calling Monteith a "fag enabler" for his role as a friend of Chris Colfer's gay character, Kurt, the tasteless tweet announced the actor had been struck down by a "mad raging god."

Even worse, they tweeted "Praise God Almighty" about Monteith's death to Glee cast members. Other tweets called his death "well-deserved." They also wished that Monteith's grieving girlfriend Lea Michele would "kill herself as well, then the wedding can go on as planned IN HELL!"

The group, which is based in Topeka, Kansas, has previously announced pickets of the vigil held for victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School, Taylor Swift; Ryan James Yezak, the L.A. filmmaker who organized a nationwide "gay blood drive;" and—just today—Ryan Lewis and Macklemore.
No plans have been announced for Monteith's funeral. Since he is from Canada, the church group is unlikely to take their protest across the border since a 2008 incident in which they entered Canada to spread their message of hate at the funeral of a 22-year-old who was murdered on a Greyhound bus prompted the Canadian Border Patrol not to let anyone in with signs or pamphlets from the church, according to the Huffington Post.

Related:
'Glee' Star Cory Monteith Found Dead In Vancouver Hotel Room
Westboro Baptist Church Calls Taylor Swift A 'Proud Whore'
Photos: Westboro Church Protests Outside Ronnie James Dio's Memorial Service
Uh Oh, They're Back: Westboro Church to Protest Fairfax High School

Sponsored message
One year ago, Congress voted to defund public media, eliminating a critical $1.7 million from our budget every year going forward. But they couldn’t silence us, and we’re not going anywhere. LAist is now 100% community funded and that means we’re taking our future into our own hands and turning to you to keep local reporting strong.

You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our nonprofit newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our communities. We are free to follow facts wherever they lead and to hold power to account without fear or favor. Our only loyalty is to our readers and listeners and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen Southern California’s communities.

If this story helped you, please become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission. It just takes 1 minute to donate below.
Senior Vice President News, Editor in Chief

Make your tax-deductible donation today