Lesbian-gay victory over bigotry

Voters in Topeka, Kan., beat back a March 1 attempt to repeal two city ordinances protecting lesbians and gay men. One prohibited discrimination in municipal hiring. The other banned hate crimes committed because of a victim’s sexual orientation.

The victory is a stunning rebuke to arch-bigot Rev. Fred Phelps, Sr., who runs a national anti-gay campaign from his Westboro Baptist Church in the city.

Voters rejected the repeal, called the “Phelps Amendment” locally, by a count of 14,285 to 12,795. Phelps is notorious for his 1998 protest at the funeral of Matthew Shepard, a Wyoming gay college student brutally beaten to death. Phelps also picketed a Birmingham, Ala., vigil for Billy Jack Gaither, a gay white man also beaten to death in 1999.

Phelps’ group travels across the U.S. demonstrating at gay-related events, including funerals of people who have died of AIDS. Its members picket with signs bearing anti-homosexual hate speech.

Underlining the victory was the same-day defeat of Phelps’ granddaughter, Jael Phelps, who ran for Topeka city council, but drew only 202 votes. In contrast, open lesbian Tiffany Muller got 1,329 votes and a place on the April general election ballot. (New York Blade)

The election outcome is an encouraging sign in Kansas, where right-wing forces have also pressed to limit women’s abortion rights. Kansas Attorney General Phil Kline is attempting to scapegoat women who have had late-term abortions, and the clinics and doctors who performed the procedures. Kline has subpoenaed women’s personal records, with the chilling implication that state officials, rather than physicians, will decide whether the procedures were “medically necessary.”

Kansas was the site of the “Operation Rescue” anti-abortion attacks on women’s clinics in 1991, a campaign that moved to Buffalo, N.Y., in 1992. A coalition of women activists and allies in Workers World Party, ACT-UP, Women’s Health Action and Mobilization (WHAM), NOW, and the ProChoice Network formed Buffalo United for Choice, which stopped the right-wing cold in pitched street battles in April of that year.

It was also a broad Topeka coalition that defeated this year’s Phelps amendment. At a local election party of hundreds, the crowd cheered the defeat. Lawyer Pedro Irigonegaray celebrated the victory: “On behalf of Topekans for equality, justice,” as the group shouted together, “Freedom!” (Topeka Capitol Journal, March 1)