Controlling Protests at Funerals
I previously linked to an article about Kansas Senator Jean Schodorf introducing a bill which included specific times and locations when protesting at funerals would be banned here.
Today the Washington Post reports that “at least five Midwestern states are considering legislation to ban protests at funerals in response to demonstrations by the Rev. Fred Phelps and members of his Topeka, Kan.-based Westboro Baptist Church, who have been protesting at funerals of Iraq war casualties because they say the deaths are God’s punishment for U.S. tolerance toward gays.” I hope to see more states that do not already have a similar ban (does anyone know if any do?) join them.
I honestly don’t know (though, if I had some time I could probably find out). However, as I said in comments to your earlier post, I have serious misgivings about this tactic. I can’t stand Fred Phelps, but I always worry about restricting free speech.
I agree with Denise about being very careful to restrict free speech, but Phelps protesting gay tolerance at the funerals of Iraq war dead is nothing more than a grab for publicity on his part. The connection between the two exists only in the rhetoric of the Westboro Baptists. It’s rather like protesting abortion outside the Band-aid factory. Why would you do such a thing? Because Band-aids are used by doctors and by women and doctors perform abortions on women.
(Come to think of it, the connection between Band-aids and abortion is less tenuous than the one between God’s vengance on the U.S. and the “homosexual agenda”.)