2003: Anti-Gay Activist Beaten while Carrying Sign Thanking God for 9/11 Attacks

Charles Hockenbarger, an elderly activist for the virulently anti-gay Westboro Baptist Church (WBC—see November 27, 1955 and After) of Topeka, Kansas, is badly beaten by an unknown assailant while carrying a sign that reads, “Thank God for September 11.” WBC members routinely praise the 9/11 attacks as being part of God’s vengeance on America for tolerating homosexuality. The church claims that Hockenbarger’s assailant is a homosexual and the beating is part of a larger murder conspiracy. Hockenbarger’s assailant will remain unidentified. [Global Oneness, 2011] Hockenbarger was convicted of assaulting a Lutheran minister in 1996 (see 1996). It is not known if the two incidents are connected.