Baltimore (Maryland), USA: A jury on Wednesday ordered a Kansas church to pay $2.9 million in compensatory damages to relatives of a gay US Marine after church members cheered his death at his funeral.
The jury in federal court determined that the Westboro Baptist Church based in Topeka, and three of its principals had invaded the privacy of the dead man's family, and inflicted emotional distress when they protested at his funeral last year.
The church's members claimed that the soldier's death was God's punishment on America for tolerating homosexuality.
Marine Lance Cpl Matthew Snyder was killed in combat in Iraq in March 2006.
The Westboro Church was sued by his father, Albert Snyder of York, Pennsylvania. The case was the first civil suit against the church, which has demonstrated at some 300 military funerals in the last two years.
The church, which is unaffiliated to any major denomination, is headed by Rev Fred Phelps who has been waging a one-man war against homosexuality for years. Most members of the church belong to his extended family.
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