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Hate Group Protests Outside Local Schools

FRAMINGHAM (CBS) - A small group of protestors from the controversial Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas picketed outside several local schools Friday.

The anti-gay group travels around the country to protest homosexuality.

Three adult protestors and three children began their local demonstrations early this morning outside Framingham High School, because the school's drama group will perform the play 'The Laramie Project" this weekend.

WBZ Radio's Doug Cope reports

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The play chronicles the torture and murder of Matthew Shepard, a gay man and University of Wyoming student who was murdered in Laramie, Wyoming in 1998.

Police kept the protestors away from the school and they left after a 15-minute demonstration.

About 150 counter-protestors were stationed across the street to show their support for the play, which sold out this week.

The hate group later moved on to hold protests at Brandeis and Harvard Universities.  They also picketed the Islamic Center of Boston in Wayland.

One church leader says Massachusetts distinguishes itself above all other states for its "filthy disobedience against God" and "over the top sin."

Westboro protestors became known nationwide for their demonstrations outside funerals for American soldiers killed in action.

At those events, church members held up signs claiming the soldiers' deaths are God's way of punishing the United States for tolerating homosexuality.

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