George County Justice Court Judge Connie Wilkerson kicked over a fire ant mound when he wrote in a letter to the George County Times, published March 28, that "in my opinion, gays and lesbians should be put in some type of mental institution instead of having a law like this passed for them." He was writing the letter in response to a recent California law that gave gay partners the same rights to file wrongful death suits as spouses or other family members have. The letter prompted statewide gay rights group Equality Mississippi and Lambda Legal, a nationwide gay rights organization, to file an ethics violation complaint against Wilkerson, arguing that the letter is evidence that the judge cannot be impartial.
Wilkerson, 65, a six-year justice court judge, later told the press that he was sorry his comments about gay people had stirred up so much controversy, but maintained that his views did not affect his performance on the bench. He also added that he was only "trying to help," and said gay people should look for help with their "disease" in the Bible.
Regardless, the State Supreme Court, in a 5-2 decision, decided not to hold Wilkerson accountable for his opinion. The matter wasn't entirely over, however. On Aug. 13, the Mississippi Commission on Judicial Performance was considering a discussion on whether or not to take the Mississippi Supreme Court decision up to the U.S. Supreme Court. The consideration didn't get far, according to commission Executive Director Brant Brantley, who said later that the commission was not pursuing the case any further.
Nevertheless, the mere suggestion of the possibility to continue any reprimand was enough to trigger a reaction by Fred Phelps and family. Phelps, born 1929 in Meridian, is pastor of Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan., a church filled mostly with his family members that has taken up a passionate cause against homosexuality.
The members—under the catchy moniker, God Hates Fags—first targeted a park in Topeka where gays hung out, they said, and later protested outside the Casper, Wyo., funeral of 21-year-old Matthew Shepard, who was beaten, lashed to a fence and left to die outside the town of Laramie, Wyo., in 1998 for being gay.
The church has an anti-gay Web site at http://www.godhatesfags.com, where lies a virtual memorial to Shepard. (Shepard has been in Hell 2,142 days as of Aug.22, according to information on the Web site. You can click on the little burning icon of Shepard to hear him screaming from Hell that Fred Phelps should be listened to.)
Both the church and the traveling protest activities are organized by Phelps' large family, most of whom are attorneys in Topeka. His daughter Shirley Phelps-Roper is spokeswoman.
"There is a God, there is a day of judgment and it's not OK to be gay, and the thing that's going to take those judges in that Supreme Court to Hell is the fact that they're even having this discussion in the first place. They should've summarily disposed of the matter by saying, 'This is ridiculous,'" said Phelps-Roper, who traveled with her husband and family from Topeka to picket outside the Mississippi Supreme Court building Aug. 13.
"This generation has given over wholesale to this sodomite agenda and it signals that the last days are upon us."
Jenni Smith of Jackson, who was standing with others across the street, hoisting their own signs in opposition to the Phelpses, said the family "preach[es] hate to all types of groups." She added: "We are a group of people who are against hate. We don't want hate mongering in our state." The Phelpses come from a very extreme viewpoint. They want attention and to start anger and riots."
When the Phelps group was done with their downtown demonstration, they packed up and shipped off to Jackson Synagogue Beth-Israel to continue their protest, because the Jews "will brag that there are more Jewish homosexuals than any other," Phelps-Roper said. "The preachers are responsible for the condition of things by setting the moral tone, and the Jews have given completely over to this."
Fred Phelps was an attorney in Kansas until he was disbarred in 1979 by the Kansas Supreme Court, because he had "little regard for the ethics of his profession." The complaint filed against him said he had misrepresented the truth in a case he argued, and that he had held the defendant in the case up to "unnecessary public ridicule for which there is no basis in fact."
The group also maintains the site, godhatesamerica.com, on which it argues that Ronald Reagan went to hell for not doing more to stop homosexuality. The group, the sites says, also picketed Reagan's funeral.
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