Slate: Make room for a Matthew Shepard hate monument in a town square near you.
The Rev. Fred Phelps is a walking migraine for Casper, Wyo. When native son Matthew Shepard was beaten to death five years ago by homophobes, Phelps picketed his funeral, screaming, “God hates fags!” as Shepard’s grieving parents entered the church. Now the Kansas reverend wants to put up a 6-foot-tall monument in Casper’s Central Park that you can view here. A bronze plaque on the monument would read:
Matthew Shepard Entered Hell October 12, 1998, at age 21 in Defiance of God’s Warning: “Thou shalt not lie with mankind as with womankind; it is abomination.” Leviticus 18:22