The head of the Illinois Family Institute (IFI), a group fighting against same-sex marriage and partner benefits, has wondered if militant anti-gay preacher Fred Phelps is actually a gay plant, 365Gay.com reported.
Phelps runs the God Hates Fags Web site. His followers at the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan., demonstrate at gay-friendly Churches and funerals of gays. Recently, the religious group has been holding anti-gay rallies at soldiers’ funerals, including a recent one at the funeral of Army Spc. Adam Harding, a 21-year-old native of Portage, Ind. The demonstrations have incurred the wrath of veterans and politicians, such as Chicago’s 11th Ward Ald. James Balcer.
Phelps’ group had threatened to demonstrate at the funeral of Gunnery Sergeant Terry W. Ball in East Peoria, Ill., but did not show up. Nevertheless, IFI executive director Peter LaBarbera issued a statement criticizing Phelps. The release stated that Phelps’s message ‘is hardly Christian and only fuels societal bigotry toward those who espouse genuine Biblical views on social issues like homosexuality and abortion.’ The statement went on to say that Phelps and his protesters are ‘crude caricatures of pro-family traditionalists who oppose the normalization of homosexuality. … I have sometimes wondered if Phelps and his lawyerly clan are ‘gay plants.”