The Westboro Baptist Church Has a Pokemon GO Gym Too

Pokemon GO utilizes real world landmarks like the White House and Trump Tower as Gyms and PokeStops, where players go to battle Pokemon and collect items for the new augmented reality game. Some players have also noticed a disproportionate amount of churches during their Pokemon GO travels, as the places of worship make for easily identifiable local landmarks.

Redditors on the Pokemon GO subreddit has noticed the infamous Westboro Baptist Church is also a Pokemon gym. The small church, located in Topeka Kansas, is nationally famous for organizing protests at the funerals of dead soldiers and celebrities and its inflammatory hate speech against members of the LBQT community and other minority groups. While the church only has about 40 members, it make see a spike in unwanted traffic as Pokemon GO players battle for control of the Pokemon gym on the premise.

One Pokemon GO player named Pinknose recently took control of the Westboro Baptist Church and left a Clefairy named "Loveislove" to guard the gym, a subtle protest against Westboro's rhetoric and beliefs. When Pinknose proudly posted the gym capture to Imgur, several users jokingly predicted that the Westboro Baptist Church would soon be protesting Nintendo for using their church to promote a game about evolution.

Pokemon GO is available in the United States, Australia and New Zealand.