Residents of Topeka, Kans., accustomed to seeing daily placards with such coarse slogans as GOD HATES FAGS and GOT AIDS YET?, have learned to put up with the family responsible for those signs in the same way some people endure living next to screeching railroad tracks. Now they're enduring the typically grating campaign of a young member of the clan who is trying to unseat the first openly gay member of the city council.

Thanks to the Phelps family, this small, gossipy city can perhaps lay claim to being the homophobia capital of the U.S. Since 1991, the Rev. Fred Phelps, 75, has led his family in campaigns against everyone from "sodomites" and "fag enablers" to victims of 9/11. More recently the Phelpses initiated a referendum on the March 1 ballot that would prohibit laws protecting gay rights. The family is also supporting one of Fred's 53 grandchildren, Jael Phelps, 20, a prim nursing student who once picketed Matthew Shepard's funeral, in her run against city councilwoman Tiffany Muller, 26, who co-sponsored a law late last year that shields gays from discrimination in city hiring. Since there are two other contenders in the race, Jael is given little chance of winning. But the referendum could succeed even though most Topekans, including those who signed the referendum petition, say they oppose the Phelpses' tactics. "A lot of people don't outwardly agree with what Phelps is doing, but behind the scenes they do," says Republican state representative Lana Gordon. --By Eric Roston

From the Feb. 28, 2005 issue of TIME magazine

you can see the more of the article in the coming issue of Time.

That sucks ass. Fred Phelps is a douche.

He really does,and whats bad is Topeka is now portrayed as this.when in fact i dont know one person other then the Phelps who is homophobic.
i hate driving down the streets and seeing these fuckers with their God hates Fags,and Fags rot in Hell signs,it's really uncalled for,their just people like everyone else.

Got hates bigots too.

She told me so.

Wow. I think the latent homosexual feelings in that bucolic hellhole have manifested themselves. Ten bucks says Phelps has a guilty conscience from touching his cousin's wee wee at 3 years old.

So when does Phelps wander into Kevin Spacey's garage during a torrential downpour and start trying to make out with him?

I don't recall coming across this statement at any point during my Catholic upbringing. But maybe my bible was poorly translated...maybe it really does say this in the Hebrew bible.

remind me to never visit you in your town, MRH13; remind me to tell my gay nephew & his partner too...

j/k, actually, it sounds like the Phelps family is the rotten apple trying to spoil the entire barrel of decent people.

but I do take great pride in being a fag enabler (pun intended).

Just pissing in the gene pool...

--PunkDavid

What are the odds that 1 of the 53 is gay? I say pretty damn good. Sweet poetic justice.

Freedom of speech. Hate it, don't you?

He's a dick. He'll get his eventually.*












































*in the butt.

What are the odds that any of his (statistically about 5) gay grandchildren will actually come out? Pretty slim, and not poetically just at all.

Remember, there were just as many gay people 100 years ago as there are now, they just weren't allowed to be who they really were. Same thing will happen in this family.

--PunkDavid

This reminds me a lot of Alan Keyes' daughter who had to hide behind her father's holier than thou rhetoric in order to feign support for him (even in the midst of interviews where he stated, hypothetically, that if his daughter was gay he would look her in the eye and call her a sinner). Well, soon after her father's poor showing in the Illinois' senate race she came out. She even protested Bush's inauguration. The point is, she had to hide who she is merely because of the biggot her father is.

Cmon you know we are gonna need evidence for that kind of argument. It may be true, but we have nothing substantive to analyze because no one has genuinely studied it in the previous centuries. Are you going to say that there are just as many individuals who's height is 6` today as in the 1500's (that'd be wrong) ?

Yeah, ditto...I also don't remember ever being taught to picket, essentially celebrating, someone's brutal murder outside of their funeral. Gotta love some of these "christians".

Firstly, all you have to do to confirm that people weren't six feet tall in the 1500's is just look at their clothing.

Secondly, all you have to do to confirm that people were gay in the 1500's is just look at their clothing.

Seriously, of course there were lots of homosexuals 100 years ago. To not believe so you would have to believe one of the two following propositions:

1) There has been a huge "gay explosion" in the 20th century where suddenly there is a huge increase in the number of gay people per capita. This would be consistent with the view that homosexuality is a choice, which I violently disagree with.

or

2) One is not actually a homosexual until one engages in homosexual activity. Again, I disagree and believe that homosexuality is a state of being, and not dependant on any physical manifestations.

--PunkDavid

Now that just seems like philosophical horseshit to me . To each his own.

But during any debate where we lack concrete evidence we are going to be filled with ad hominem arguments. I have come across one that I really enjoyed though, and I wish I could take credit for it.

One morning a classmate of mine states "I think Nietzsche was just a lunatic!", a fellow student replies "Well, isn't that a rational response to the human condition?".

Seriously, let's discuss this for a minute.

Is a person gay before they participate in their first homosexual encounter, or is it the homosexual act that makes one gay?

For example, long before I had ever had sex, I knew I want to have sex with women. If I had wanted to have sex with men, wouldn't I have been gay?

I suppose this is philosophical, but I think it is a key philosophical question when it comes to one's attitudes towards gay people.

--PunkDavid

My opinion:

Phelps is NOT a real "Christ Like" sort of guy, that's for sure.

The only thing that makes someone something is the labels we all decide to place upon one another - someone elses sexuality is their own business (regardless of what dictates it or how it came to be), and is certainly not the business of Phelps.

It is arguable that the rest of us could easily go after a guy like him using his same tactics, but then we all end up being reduced to level's of stupidity and selfishness too unreasonable to even consider. If we are to live in a "civilized society" its time we start acting civilized and take care of our own business, not make it our business to demonize degrade and deject others to make ourselves look righteous.

God knows of who are the real demons - he put guys like Phelps on the planet not because Phelps is right, but as a test to see how well we resist the temptation to be trapped in the same narrow-minded negative behavior pattern this guy has gotten into - he's nothing but a rabblerouser insiting the peasants to pull out their torches and pitchforks.

I say: f- him. Phelps is no better than someone like Hitler.

I was just thinking that. There has to be a chance.