The White House has formally responded to five petitions that request Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kan. have their non-profit status revoked and that they be federally recognized as a hate group.
Nearly 700,000 people have signed the petitions since December 2012 when they were created.
In a post on the White House website the administration says while they do not maintain a list of hate groups, they agree that the practices of Westboro Baptist are "reprehensible."
Westboro Baptist is best known for its protest of the funerals of American soldiers on the basis that the deaths are God's punishment for the U.S.'s toleration of homosexuality.
The White House also released an GIF that shows the location of the people that signed one of the petitions.
There is a concentration of signers in the Kansas area and in Connecticut where church members had said they would go to protest the funerals of the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary massacre.
