Topeka ? A Topeka church known for its picketing against homosexuality says it has been banned from Great Britain.

Westboro Baptist Church issued a news release Thursday saying it learned of the ban from a news report in London. The church said the ban was imposed by Britain’s Home Office.

The church said it had planned to picket a performance of “The Laramie Project” in Basingstoke, England.

The play is about the death of Matthew Shepard, a gay college student who was beaten, tied to a fence post and left for dead in October 1998 in Laramie, Wyo. It includes a depiction of the church’s picketing and its pastor, the Rev. Fred Phelps Sr.

The church has gained the most notoriety in the United States for picketing the funerals of soldiers.