A Westboro Baptist Church petition on the "We the People" White House petition site has become the most popular petition on the site yet. The petition calls for the group to be officially designated as a hate group.
The petition which was submitted on Dec. 14 has over 251,000 signatures as of Dec. 26. It was started on the same day as the shooting that took place at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn,. The petition was started as the Westboro Baptist Church Group said it would protest at funerals of the 26 victims which included 20 children.
The petition reads:
"This group has been recognized as a hate group by organizations, such as The Southern Poverty Law Center, and has repeatedly displayed the actions typical of hate groups.
Their actions have been directed at many groups, including homosexuals, military, Jewish people and even other Christians. They pose a threat to the welfare and treatment of others and will not improve without some form of imposed regulation."
The group is known for its anti-gay displays, such as signs that read "God Hates Fags." They typically try to hold these protests at military funerals, but President Obama signed the Honoring America's Veterans Act in August which prohibits them from protesting closer than 300 feet from a funeral and they can't protest two hours before or after a service.
The "We the People" site allows anyone to start a petition. This petition against the Westboro Baptist Church is the most popular one as of yet as it has even more signatures that petitions calling for federal action on gun control and many other gun law-related petitions that appeared since the shootings.
The second most popular petition is about Texas requesting to secede from the United States following the reelection of President Barack Obama. That petition gained over 122,000 signatures.
Signatures on the "We the People" website must pass 25,000 within a certain time-frame to earn a response from the Obama administration.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
