Swedish royals call in the lawyers over preacher
The Swedish royal family has brought in the lawyers against a fundamentalist preacher in Kansas who said that the royal children look “slutty and gay”.
Fred Phelps, of the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas, is well-known for his anti-gay website God Hates Fags. Sweden first came to his attention last year, when pastor Åke Green was convicted under hate crimes legislation for a sermon on homosexuality.
This inspired Phelps to start a website called God Hates Sweden, on which he refers to Sweden as a “land of sodomy, bestiality and incest.”
Now Phelps has turned his attention to the royal family. He says that Princesses Madeleine and Victoria and Prince Carl Philip “look slutty and gay”. Using obscene language, he implies that King Carl Gustaf is gay.
Phelps publishes photos of the royals that he claims were sent to him by a Swede to persuade him that “Sweden is a land of wholesome family values.”
“It won’t work,” Phelps insists.
The palace has sent a link to the site to its lawyers, but press secretary Ann-Christine Jernberg concedes that there is probably little they can do, as it is hard to get such sites shut down.
“But I think that it is frightful to defame people in this way,” she told Svenska Dagbladet.
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Fred Phelps, of the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas, is well-known for his anti-gay website God Hates Fags. Sweden first came to his attention last year, when pastor Åke Green was convicted under hate crimes legislation for a sermon on homosexuality.
This inspired Phelps to start a website called God Hates Sweden, on which he refers to Sweden as a “land of sodomy, bestiality and incest.”
Now Phelps has turned his attention to the royal family. He says that Princesses Madeleine and Victoria and Prince Carl Philip “look slutty and gay”. Using obscene language, he implies that King Carl Gustaf is gay.
Phelps publishes photos of the royals that he claims were sent to him by a Swede to persuade him that “Sweden is a land of wholesome family values.”
“It won’t work,” Phelps insists.
The palace has sent a link to the site to its lawyers, but press secretary Ann-Christine Jernberg concedes that there is probably little they can do, as it is hard to get such sites shut down.
“But I think that it is frightful to defame people in this way,” she told Svenska Dagbladet.
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