Anti-gay protest gets little notice at dome
By Tom Pantera
The Forum - 11/03/2002

There was a surreal moment Saturday during the two hours members of the Westboro Baptist Church picketed the Fargodome.

It happened an hour and a half after the nine pickets arrived with signs reading “God hates fags,” “AIDS is God’s curse” and “Thank God for Sept. 11.”

At 12:30 p.m., the North Dakota State University marching band arrived at the dome. The band could be heard long before it could be seen; as the music came closer, one of the pickets jovially bobbed his sign in time to the beat.

But as the band passed the pickets, who were stationed on the sidewalk northeast of the main dome entrance, the musicians didn’t give them so much as a look.

Neither, for that matter, did most of the people entering the stadium for the NDSU-Northern Colorado game.

Members of the Topeka, Kan.-based church first gained national notice when they picketed the 1998 Wyoming funeral of gay murder victim Matthew Shepard.

They have since appeared around the country, staging events decrying homosexuality as a sin and claiming that God is punishing the United States for tolerating it.

Their purpose is not necessarily to change minds, said picket Jonathan Phelps, son of the church’s pastor.

People at both NDSU and the University of Northern Colorado “have no fear of God and they hate his commandments,” he said.

“I’m preaching them into hell. I’m certifying they’re demon-possessed.”

They picketed Saturday’s football game because both schools participate in Safe Zone, a program in which college faculty and staff put a sticker on their door signaling they are willing to talk to students about gay issues.

Most of those attending the game walked right past them, barely looking. A few made isolated comments, although most of those came after they were out of the pickets’ earshot.

“They’re just trying to make a statement,” one woman said to her young child.

“Where do they get the money to this?” another woman asked a friend.

One man grumbled that he was most angered by a picket who was dragging a U.S. flag on the sidewalk.

It wasn’t until just before 1 p.m. that the demonstration drew much of a reaction at all. A small group of young people confronted Phelps and demanded he name the exact verse in the Bible that reads “God hates fags.”

Minnesota State University Moorhead student Pete Kleckner produced a Bible and told Phelps to put down his picket sign and find the verse.

“This message (on the sign) is more necessary than for me to talk to fools,” Phelps said. Moments later, all nine pickets left the dome.

Kleckner said he talked back to the pickets because he has gay friends and cannot understand how anyone can maintain God hates them.

“I didn’t come here to confront anybody,” he said. “I don’t understand the hate. I wanted some questions answered and I didn’t get them answered.”

Readers can reach Forum reporter Tom Pantera at (701) 241-5541