The Roanoke Times

Printed Sept. 28, 2000

By CODY LOWE and KIMBERLY O'BRIEN
The Roanoke Times

Fears that Roanoke Valley law-enforcement agencies wouldn't protect them apparently dissuaded Kansas pastor Fred Phelps and his followers from picketing at Wednesday's funeral for Danny Lee Overstreet.

Roanoke City Police Department statements, such as "all we need is for that guy to show up," published in Tuesday's Roanoke Times, "set an atmosphere and a tone ... that said it was open season on the picketers," said Shirley Phelps-Roper, Phelps' daughter, who serves as legal counsel to his church.

Phelps, pastor of Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kan., is known for picketing the funerals of gays who die by violence or AIDS, holding up signs that say such things as "God hates fags" and "AIDS cures fags," and yelling to the mourners that the deceased is burning in hell. The confrontations sometimes degenerate into shouting matches, and the pickets are occasionally pelted with eggs or other objects.

Phelps-Roper said from Kansas that her father was attempting by "moral suasion" to change the lives of homosexual people he believes are condemned to hell if they do not change.

In a telephone interview Wednesday night, Phelps-Roper said she advised her father not to make the trip. She wasn't sure he took her advice, she said, because she had been gone on a business trip for the last two days.

About 50 officers from Vinton, Roanoke County, Virginia State Police and the Roanoke County Sheriff's Office were at the funeral and nearby in case there were any problems.

"All of it may turn out to be unnecessary and I'll end up taking these guys to dinner," Vinton Police Chief Herb Cooley said at 5:30 p.m., when it looked as if Phelps would definitely be a no-show.

The only apparent protest came from a car that drove by with a white banner that read, "Ronnie Gay for Pres." Members of the Hate Free Roanoke Task Force formed a protective wall at the curb and turned their backs to it .

"You ignore stuff long enough and it'll go away," said Ann Sines, who represented both the gay community and the Mountain View Neighborhood Watch in Southwest Roanoke.

One man, standing across Hardy Road, surveyed the crowd gathered outside the funeral home and called the showing a "damn disgrace" and the police presence a "waste of taxpayers' money." The man would not give his name.

That view was clearly in the minority, evidenced by the more than 800 people who turned out.

Kathryn Marlow of the Hate Free Roanoke group said a planned "Phelps-a-thon" to raise money for the shooting victims and their families was a success even without his appearance. Donors were asked to pledge money for each minute Phelps picketed. About $4,200 was pledged, and Marlow said she expected most people would make the contributions anyway.

An additional $1,500 already has been raised for the fund, said Bishop Anthony Hash of Christ the Good Shepherd American Catholic Church. Several in the funeral crowd stopped him to present donations Wednesday night.

"It's good to see this many supporters out there," said Susan Hristov, of Vinton, who stood across the street and watched with her husband, Peter, and their 11- and 13-year-old daughters.

Cooley said that Phelps, even by not coming, accomplished one thing he wanted.

"He did what he expected to do -- disrupt the community," Cooley said. "He got his media attention and didn't have to spend the money."

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