(Ottawa Sun, Sunday, June 27th, 1999)
HATE TOUR HITS T.O.
Anti-gay roadshow en route to capital targets
By DONNA CASEY -- Ottawa Sun
In a dress rehearsal for tomorrow's flag-burning protest on the
Supreme Court steps, Pastor Fred Phelps will take his anti-gay
gospel to Toronto's Gay Pride parade today.
The 69-year-old bible-thumper from Topeka, Kan. is expected
to unleash his self-professed hatred of homosexuals when he
pickets and harangues gays and lesbians along the parade route
this afternoon.
"That's what we do -- we preach to sinners and there's a whole
puddle of them at a parade like that," said Shirley Phelps-Roper,
Phelps' daughter and an attorney with her father's Westboro
Baptist Church in Topeka.
She added that gays "have been taken captive by the Devil to do
his business" and Phelps' followers attack gays "out of the
kindness of our hearts for our fellow man."
TOUR TO CONTINUE
Phelps plans to continue on to Ottawa tomorrow, where he will
picket the Supreme Court for its recent decision giving equal
rights to gay and lesbian couples.
Rev. Brent Hawkes, pastor of Toronto's gay- and
lesbian-friendly Metropolitan Community Church, is fully
prepared for Phelps and about a dozen of his disciples to crash
his church's outdoor service.
"He's so despicable and unpredictable, we're not sure what he's
going to do," Hawkes said.
Hawkes said Phelps, who has picketed other Metropolitan
Community Churches in San Francisco and Minneapolis with a
"God Hates Fags" message, has the power to "bring out the
right-wing crazies."
"We've had too many churches in the past burned to the ground
to want to encourage any kind of fanaticism," Hawkes said.
John Fisher, executive director of Equality for Gays and
Lesbians Everywhere (EGALE), brushed off the impact the
preacher would have on today's festivities, expected to attract
more than a million people.
FLAG TO BE TORCHED
"The whole place is a carnival," Fisher said. "I can't see that one
man trying to make a fuss and tell everyone we're sinners is going
to be noticed particularly."
EGALE is organizing a vigil to counter Phelps' Supreme Court
demonstration, where he vows to torch the Canadian flag to
show Canada "is now burning with fag lust" and "will be turned
into Hell, where the fire is never quenched."
Oddly, one prominent white-supremacist says Phelps' antics may
too "radical" for Canadians.
"There's potentially a lot of middle-class or average Canadians
who do agree but Canadians are not likely to line up behind
someone whose message is as radical as his," said Wolfgang
Droege, co-founder of the Heritage Front.
Regional Coun. Alex Munter said Phelps should not be taken
lightly.
"I know what happens when we don't stand up in the face of
hatred," he said.
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