Westboro Baptist Church first came to my attention via Louis Theroux’s documentary, The Most Hated Family in America. He did a follow-up years later, Surviving America’s Most Hated Family, which I think was part of my Covid-lockdown viewing. Anyway, it’s the reason that Megan Phelps-Roper’s memoir, Unfollow, made its way onto my reading stack.

Phelps-Roper was raised in the Westboro Baptist Church – a fire-and-brimstone sect, known for their aggressively homophobic and anti-Semitic views and for picketing the funerals of American soldiers. The author attended her first picket at age five, and in her teens became instrumental in spreading the church’s messages via social media. Through all of this, she attended mainstream schools, where her beliefs sat uncomfortably alongside those of her peers. Continue reading →