Town votes on Anti-Gay statue
The Casper, Wyoming City Council will meet tonight to decide what to do about a statue condemning Matthew Shepard to "burn in hell."
City Manager Tom Forslund said the city is "repulsed" by the proposal, by anti-gay preacher Fred Phelps, to place the 6-foot-tall granite monument in a downtown park. "There is no one that wants the Phelps' hate message placed here," he told the Rocky Mountain News.
The monument would bear a plaque showing Shepard engulfed in flames with the words: 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."
Shepard, who grew up in Casper was viciously beaten near Laramie where he was attending college. He was tied to a fence overnight on cold prairie back road and died several days later in a Fort Collins hospital at the age of 21.
Forslund said the council members have pledged to reject the statue. But, that may be easier said than done.
The park where Phelps wants to erect the monument already has a statue of the Ten Commandments. After a court battle over a similar monument in the city of Ogden, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that any city that displays a Ten Commandments monument on public property must also allow monuments espousing the views of other religions or political groups on that same property.
Casper has few options. It could go to court, but lawyers familiar with the Ogden case say Phelps would probably win. The city could remove the Ten Commandments monument. One proposal would see the Ten Commandments moved to private land owned by the Fraternal Order Of Eagles, which donated it to the city in the 1960s.
"We don't want to move it, but we don't want Phelps' hate spread through the city," said Herschel Nickerson, secretary for the Eagles. "I don't think their monument would last very long. Fred Phelps cannot put himself above the Lord as judge."
That would prevent Phelps from placing the monument in the park, but Phelps says that won't deter him. In a letter to council, Phelps said that if he is rebuffed by the city he will buy land downtown for the statue. On private property, there would be nothing to prevent the erection of the monument.
Source Article.
In other news, I have a CrazyScary science test today. After that, a meeting with my advisor, a lesson, French, some emergency grocery shopping, and then I will nap before Hsing practice and baking a cake. Then Angel, the gayest show on tv other than QAF and QEfotSG. Take that, Fred Phelps.
City Manager Tom Forslund said the city is "repulsed" by the proposal, by anti-gay preacher Fred Phelps, to place the 6-foot-tall granite monument in a downtown park. "There is no one that wants the Phelps' hate message placed here," he told the Rocky Mountain News.
The monument would bear a plaque showing Shepard engulfed in flames with the words: 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."
Shepard, who grew up in Casper was viciously beaten near Laramie where he was attending college. He was tied to a fence overnight on cold prairie back road and died several days later in a Fort Collins hospital at the age of 21.
Forslund said the council members have pledged to reject the statue. But, that may be easier said than done.
The park where Phelps wants to erect the monument already has a statue of the Ten Commandments. After a court battle over a similar monument in the city of Ogden, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that any city that displays a Ten Commandments monument on public property must also allow monuments espousing the views of other religions or political groups on that same property.
Casper has few options. It could go to court, but lawyers familiar with the Ogden case say Phelps would probably win. The city could remove the Ten Commandments monument. One proposal would see the Ten Commandments moved to private land owned by the Fraternal Order Of Eagles, which donated it to the city in the 1960s.
"We don't want to move it, but we don't want Phelps' hate spread through the city," said Herschel Nickerson, secretary for the Eagles. "I don't think their monument would last very long. Fred Phelps cannot put himself above the Lord as judge."
That would prevent Phelps from placing the monument in the park, but Phelps says that won't deter him. In a letter to council, Phelps said that if he is rebuffed by the city he will buy land downtown for the statue. On private property, there would be nothing to prevent the erection of the monument.
Source Article.
In other news, I have a CrazyScary science test today. After that, a meeting with my advisor, a lesson, French, some emergency grocery shopping, and then I will nap before Hsing practice and baking a cake. Then Angel, the gayest show on tv other than QAF and QEfotSG. Take that, Fred Phelps.