WASHINGTON – Demonstrators would be barred from disrupting military funerals at national cemeteries under legislation approved by the Senate yesterday.

The measure, which passed the House in nearly identical form two weeks ago, specifically targets a Kansas church group that has staged protests at military funerals around the country, claiming that the deaths were a sign of God’s anger at American tolerance of homosexuals.

The act “will protect the sanctity of all 122 of our national cemeteries as shrines to their gallant dead,” the Senate majority leader, William Frist of Tennessee, said.

“It’s a sad but necessary measure to protect what should be recognized by all reasonable people as a solemn, private, and deeply sacred occasion,” he said.

Under the Senate bill, approved without objection with no recorded vote, the “Respect for America’s Fallen Heroes Act” would bar protests within 300 feet of the entrance of a cemetery and within 150 feet of a road into the cemetery from 60 minutes before to 60 minutes after a funeral. Those violating the act would face up to a $100,000 fine and up to a year in prison.

The sponsor of the House bill, Rep. Mike Rogers, a Republican of Michigan, said he took up the issue after attending a military funeral in his home state where mourners were greeted by “chants and taunting and some of the most vile things I have ever heard.”