Gay Power in Numbers

Turnabout, they say, is fair play. And when Leavenworth resident Chris Love and his friends heard that Topeka's notorious homo-hating minister Fred Phelps and his clan were planning to picket memorial services for Brokeback Mountain actor Heath Ledger, they wondered, "Why hasn't anyone picketed Fred?" That's when Love and his friends began planning a picketing party of their own — called the Million Fag March — targeting the Phelps family's Westboro Baptist Church. The private church is located in a residential neighborhood, so the marchers will meet in Gage Park (10th Street and Gage in Topeka). The marchers, some coming from as far as Texas and California, will begin with an 11 a.m. rally and then walk peacefully past the church. Love says Topeka has never seen a large anti-Phelps rally before, and the police aren't sure how to control a crowd expected to number more than 500 people. "We wanted a million," Love says, "but I don't think Topeka could handle that."
Sun., March 30, 11 a.m., 2008