Elizabeth Edwards, wife of former U.S. Sen. John Edwards, recently died after battling cancer for several years.

An active lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender supporter, she even was a speaker at the start of this year’s Gay Pride Parade in San Francisco.

Her funeral this weekend, though, will have a few uninvited guests.

The Westboro Baptist Church has announced plans to protest the solemn occasion, and rally against the cause Elizabeth was known to fight for.

For those of you who don’t know, the Westboro Baptist Church is an organization based in Kansas known for being openly opposed to not only the rights of homosexuals to marry and serve in the military, but even to exist openly.

The Westboro Baptist Church is known for protesting at the funerals civil rights activists, and soldiers — most notably and publicly those who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan. Their reasoning being that the deaths of Americans at the hands of enemies, including the victims of the 9/11 attacks, is the will of God as punishment for American tolerance of the LGBT community — or “soul-damning, nation-destroying filth,” as they are called on the Church’s website, found at www.godhatesfags.com

We hate to give this hate-mongering group any more press than they already receive as a result of their despicable actions, but their tactics bring up an interesting tension.

The First Amendment, which we at the Iowa State Daily have hanging on our newsroom wall in giant letters, gives the Westboro Baptist Church protection from interference in their affairs by, as they refer to him, “Antichrist Bloody Beast Obama,” and the rest of the government.

The First Amendment protects the rights of both us and the Westboro Baptist Church to speak freely, peaceably assemble and practice religion freely. As much as we despise the message that they work so hard to spread, we must support their right to spread it, so long as they remain peaceful.

However, this particular organization gives the exercisers of this right a bad name. Protesting at the funerals of troops, especially those who died in combat, fighting to protect their friends and families, is almost too horrible to think about, and makes any sane person want to force them to stop.

By pushing a message of intolerance and hate against homosexuals — and a myriad other groups — they give more ammunition to those who would put heavy restrictions on the rights and freedoms set forth by the First Amendment.

This hurts citizens who like to peacefully protest, assemble or really just say something that is within reason.

The First Amendment is meant as a responsibility for the citizens of the United States, not just a collection of rights. When the Bill of Rights was written, the amendment was written and put first as an insurance policy. The First Amendment is the method by which the people can regulate the government, it’s the ultimate check and balance. If the government is doing something wrong, immoral or strongly enough against the will of the people, the first amendment guarantees that those people can remind those in power of the origins of that power.

So when people like the Westboro Baptist Church abuse this right, to argue against who they believe to be perverts, they are themselves perverting the very thing that allows them to do so.