Megan Phelps-Roper on leaving the Westboro Baptist Church

The Sunday Salon with Alice-Azania Jarvis

This is not a Valentine's special - but it is a love story, in its own way. Or at least, a story of how someone left behind the hate they'd grown up with. Ok, this is all getting a bit cryptic, so let me explain: Megan Phelps-Roper is a former member of the Westboro Baptist Church. Growing up in Kansas, she lived in a compound with other members and took part in their notorious protests - including those against homosexuality, and including picketing the funerals of soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Then something changed. After joining Twitter, others began engaging her in conversations that cast doubt on her beliefs and she slowly started to question everything she had grown up thinking to be true. In 2012, she left the church and became a vocal critic of it. Eventually, one of those early Twitter interventionists became her husband. Her memoir Unfollow: A Journey from Hatred to Hope, leaving the Westboro Baptist Church, documents her incredible journey - and as you imagine, I found her utterly fascinating to speak to.