FRED-PHELPS.JPG

This file photo shows Fred Phelps Sr. displays one of his many infamous protest signs. Phelps, the fiery founder of the Westboro Baptist Church, a small Kansas church, who drew international condemnation for outrageous and hate-filled protests that blamed almost everything, including the deaths of AIDS victims and U.S. soldiers, on America's tolerance for gay people, has died the family said Thursday, March 20, 2014. He was 84.

(AP Photo/The Topeka Capital Journal)

UPDATE: The WBC claims it will be on campus in Amherst Wednesday, April 16 from 12:15-1 p.m. to picket.

---

Well, this was probably – and unfortunately – inevitable.

A day after University of Massachusetts sophomore Derrick Gordon revealed to the public that he is gay, the Westboro Baptist Church tweeted Thursday (and in Spanish, too) that it will travel to Amherst to demonstrate and picket at the university.

Date, time and other logistical information is not yet available (the church maintains a running list of upcoming pickets here).

Established in 1955 under Fred Phelps (who died in March), the Westboro Baptist Church is an organization known for its extreme ideologies and intolerance of LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) rights and lifestyles.

The WBC, best described as a hate group, is most widely publicized for its anti-gay rallies and picketing of funerals (often those of soldiers killed in the line of duty). Such demonstrations are often met with an equal (or greater), positive reaction from those in support of human rights and equality, creating a dueling protest effect.

In some cases, the WBC has announced that it would picket events only to not show up, so there remains a chance that no protest against UMass and Gordon will occur.

Let's hope that's the case.