Westboro to
Picket Tubbs Jones Funeral

The Westboro Baptist Church has made plans to picket the funeral of the late Ohio congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones, who died August 19 of a brain aneurysm.

An adamant gay rights ally and supporter of Sen. Hillary Clinton's run for president, Tubbs Jones was the first black woman to represent a congressional district in Ohio when she was elected in 1998. She received a 100% rating from the Human Rights Campaign for her stances on LGBT issues. In her tenure, she voted against banning adoptions by gays in Washington, D.C., fought for increased funding for AIDS treatment and prevention, and supported stricter hate-crime laws. During the 2007 flap in Congress over the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, Tubbs Jones voted for the bill. She also voted against the Federal Marriage Amendment, which would amend the Constitution to ban gay marriage.

The Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas said in a press release that members will picket Tubbs Jones's because of her support for gay rights as a congresswoman. The group blamed Tubbs for letting gays "take over the country," and for "[persecuting] WBC members for preaching God's truth about sodomitical dangers America faces."

The Tubbs Jones funeral is slated for the Cleveland Convention Center on Saturday. (The Advocate)