(Casper, Wyoming) The City of Casper, Wyoming has rejected an offer from anti-gay preacher Fred Phelps to erect a statue dedicated to Matthew Shepard.
Phelps, who runs the God Hates Fags website,(www.godhatesfags.com) first gained national attention when he and his followers demonstrated at the funeral of Matthew Shepard in Casper in 1998.
Shepard was murdered in a homophobic attack by two men.
Phelps offered to build the statue in Casper's Monument Plaza which was dedicated earlier this month. The park features monuments to Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence, the Magna Carta, the Mayflower Compact, the Ten Commandments and the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution.
Phelps' proposed a monument that would have been 5 to 6 feet tall and made of marble or granite. It would have had a bronze plaque bearing the image of Shepard and have an inscription reading "MATTHEW SHEPARD, Entered Hell October 12, 1998, in Defiance of God's Warning: 'Thou shalt not lie with mankind as with womankind; it is abomination.' Leviticus 18:22."
"Casper's historic monument plaza is a collection of documents that are the underpinning and foundation of our law," Mayor Kate Sarosy wrote in a reply to Phelps.
"Your monument is simply religious in character, based on your personal religious beliefs regarding Matthew Shepard, and bears no historical significance to the foundation of the law for our country. As such, the city cannot place your monument on city property without violating the establishment clause of the United States Constitution."
Phelps attempted to get the city to approve a similar statue in 2003 and also was rejected.
Phelps and his followers have not ruled out taking the city to court.
The city's rebuff is the second setback this month for Phelps and his Topeka Kansas-based Westboro Baptist Church.
On July 6, his daughter was been formally charged with negligent child abuse, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, flag mutilation and disturbing the peace over an anti-gay protest at the funeral of a soldier last month in Bellevue, Nebraska.
The charges against Shirley Phelps-Roper, 49, stem from a June incident involving her 10-year-old son who stomped on an American flag during a protest at the funeral of a National Guardsman killed in Iraq.
Phelps-Roper and about a dozen other members of the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas carried signs denouncing homosexuality and stating that military deaths in Iraq were God's retribution for America being permissive of gays.
A 1977 Nebraska law prohibits trampling a flag. The protestors brought their own flags to the demonstration.
At the time of her arrest a police officer said that Phelps-Roper put one flag around her waist.
"The second one was given to a 10-year-old, who put it on the ground and started kicking it in the area they were protesting," Officer Joe Gray said.
Westboro Baptist has 70 members, made up mostly of Phelps' relatives. Although it professes to be Baptist it is not affiliated with any national Baptist group.
Church members routinely demonstrate at the funerals of AIDS victims and most recently at the funerals of soldiers killed in Iraq.
Westboro Baptist's picketing of soldiers' funerals led Congress and 34 states, including Kansas, to enact laws attempting to restrict such protests. It regularly protests at gay and HIV/AIDS events.
In May, members of the church protested at the funeral of evangelist Jerry Falwell.
About a dozen members of the church carried placards accusing Falwell of being in league with gays and of cozying up to Israel.
*365Gay.com
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