Las Vegas rockers Panic! At The Disco have turned members of the infamous Westboro Baptist Church into fundraisers for a gay rights charity.
The church, who regularly protest against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender groups, said they would picket the band’s appearance in Kansas City because of the group’s track, I Write Sins Not Tragedies.
However, band members decided to undermine the church by promising to donate $20 to the Human Rights Campaign for every Westboro Baptist Church protester who showed up.
Only 13 picketers arrived outside the gig, so the band decided to donate $1000 and 5 percent of the proceeds from their merchandise sales to the HRC, which is America’s largest civil rights organisations.
Following the gig, the church took to Twitter to mock the band, saying: “There’ll be panic at the second coming of Christ,” before tweeting a picture of Panic! At The Disco’s frontman, Brendon Urie, with a caption reading: “repent or perish.”
It’s not the first time the church have threatened musicians. In 2013, they said they planned to picket late Slayer guitarist Jeff Hanneman’s memorial service in Hollywood, but they failed to show.