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<p>CASPER, Wyo. (AP) - City leaders voted to move a Ten Commandments monument out of a public park after an anti-gay preacher proposed his own monument saying slain college student Matthew Shepard is in hell. The Rev. Fred Phelps said displaying the Ten Commandments monument would force the city to allow other public displays as well, including his own.</p>

Fred Phelps Sr. led his small Topeka church for more than two decades in a bellicose crusade against gays and lesbians, saying they were worthy of death and openly declaring—often at military funerals—that the U.S. was doomed because of its tolerance of homosexuality. But in targeting grieving families of troops killed overseas, taunting people entering other churches and carrying signs with anti-gay slurs and vulgar language or symbols, Phelps and his Westboro Baptist congregation created public circuses that may have helped the gay-rights movement. Following Phelps’ death Wednesday at age 84, some gay-rights advocates suggested that he and his church...

Only around 15 out of the 55 million sperm that embark on the treacherous journey to fertilise the egg are able to make it through the reproductive tract where cervical mucus, which is one hundred times thicker than water, forms part of one of nature's toughest selective challenges. ...With no central nervous system to make decisions about how to move and when—what controls sperms movement remains a scientific mystery

Civil rights leader Julian Bond Friday called North Carolina the new Mississippi because of its voter-ID law. "North Carolina has become the new Mississippi," Bond said on a program that will air Friday night on "Political Capital with Al Hunt'' on Bloomberg TV. "They've just taken an enormous step backward in voting rights and a series of things because of the domination of Republicans in the House and the Senate and in the governor's chair,'' said, who who is a former chairman of the national NAACP and a former Georgia legislator.

Michael Phelps gave his baby son Boomer a kiss as he added two more Olympic gold medals to his record total on Tuesday night after leading Team USA to victory in the 4x200 freestyle relay less than an hour after defeating his arch nemesis Chad Le Clos. Phelps made up for one of the rare losses in his brilliant career by seeing off rival Le Clos to win the men's 200m butterfly - and his twentieth Olympic gold medal, which he later admitted it was 'revenge' for 2012. 'There was so much emotion and so much build up for that...

CNN host says Michael Phelps shouldn’t carry US flag, but a ‘Muslim’ should . . . Americans are furious (Full Title) Liberals wanted U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps to give up the honor of carrying the American flag and leading his country’s athletes at the opening ceremony for the Rio Olympic games Friday night. He’s the wrong color and the wrong sex. After Phelps was chosen by his fellow Olympians, the U.S. Olympic Team tweeted: But coming in a close second to Phelps in the team’s vote was Ibtihaj Muhammad, a woman, an African-American and a Muslim to boot. What could...

Team USA's swimming team are celebrating a double victory tonight after winning two gold medals. Michael Phelps takes home his 19th gold after winning the men's 4x100m freestyle relay. The 31-year-old, 22-time Olympic medalist, swam the second leg of the relay for Team USA - despite not competing in any freestyle events at the U.S. trials or in the preliminaries in Rio. He was cheered on by his girlfriend Nicole Johnson, who was sat with their son Boomer, and Phelps' mom Deborah.

Flags are flying at half-staff outside state buildings and grounds in Georgia in memory of a student stabbed to death on the campus of Fort Valley State University. Former student Joseph Anthony Scott Jr. faces charges including murder in the Tuesday killing of 19-year-old freshman Donnell Phelps. Police say Scott was harassing and groping three young women near the school cafeteria, and Phelps came to their aid by trying to intervene.

Before he checked into rehab in September, Michael Phelps was having a steamy affair with much older blonde, Taylor Lianne Chandler. But the most shocking aspect of their relationship wasn’t the 12-year age difference. RadarOnline.com can exclusively reveal that Chandler, 41, was actually born a man! Chandler, born David Roy Fitch, tells Radar in an exclusive interview that she was an intersex baby.

The West Borough Baptist Church nearly made a journey to Iraq to protest against IS, after taking up an offer from comedian Adam Hills to fly the anti-gay hate group to the war torn country.The Australian comic made his pledge on his show The Last Leg, on Channel 4 last Friday after the church vowed to picket the funeral of Robin Williams, who they labelled a ‘fag pimp’.He told members of the controversial church to ‘put your money where your mouth is’ and offered to fly them to Iraq so they could protest against the killing of Christians by Islamic State...

Fred Phelps, a former street preacher who led a family ministry that raged against what he perceived as a morally bankrupt society, died Thursday. His legacy of picketing funerals of military veterans and disaster victims, promoting coarse language to condemn conduct he viewed as amoral, and waging legal battles that protected his actions under the First Amendment, earned him an international reputation of a man’s whose absolute conviction was never swayed in the face of widespread contempt. “The level of his vitriol, the savageness of his comments, were just unmatched anywhere. His rhetoric was such he united people both on...

Death is always a tragedy. Hate makes it more so. Today, a man known for hate died. CNN concluded that his infamy was worth a breaking news alert. But how do we respond? How does this breaking news relate to the gospel's good news? I've had some run-ins with Westboro, though I don't like to use the words "Baptist" and "Church" when referring to it. (My apologies to the city of Westboro, but your sacrifice is appreciated to rescue the words "Baptist" and "Church.") I actually have a reminder of the Phelps family that I see every day. If you...

If Fred Phelps didn’t exist, it would be necessary to invent him. ................................................ Indeed, Phelps was one of the LGBT community’s best friends—precisely because he was so outrageous. Every time Maggie Gallagher or Robert George would get up and give some vaguely reasonable defense of ‘traditional’ marriage, Phelps’s posse would show up with their tricolor posters and homophobic rhetoric. Phelps was like the emperor with no clothes on. There was nothing disguising his feelings; he made it clear that being anti-gay really was all about hate.

TOPEKA, KS – On the same day that Fred Phelps’ body was found rotting in a chair in his upstairs office, members of the controversial Westboro Baptist Church announced that they would be picketing his upcoming funeral. Phelps, born November 13, 1929, was the leader of the church — an organization that practices a strange, anti-homosexual version of Christianity that has been known to protest at celebrity and military funerals. The pastor’s daughter, Shirley Phelps-Roper, was the first to discover the 83-year-old’s body. “We haven’t brought dad out to very many protests for a few years now,” said Phelps-Roper. “In...

Fred Phelps Sr., the former head of the Westboro Baptist Church, died late Wednesday night, according to a family member. Phelps' son, Timothy told 13 News that his father died just before midnight. Timothy Pheps works at the Shawnee Co. Jail. Ironically, another son who is a member of the church, attorney Jonathan Phelps told us Thursday morning, "Pastor Phelps is doing just fine." That, of course, could have been a spiritual reference. Over the weekend, we learned that Phelps was reportedly "on the edge of death." In a statement on his Facebook page, Nathan Phelps, who has been estranged...

The founder of Westboro Baptist Church, Fred Phelps, notorious for leading hateful protests against gay rights, is actually a Democrat with long history of endorsing Democratic candidates. On Tuesday, Politico provided some background on Phelps' political history, most of which saw him endorsing Democrat candidates and running for office a number of times as a Democrat. In the 1990's, Phelps ran in three Kansas Democratic primaries for Governor in 1990, 1994, and 1998, receiving only 15% of the vote. He also ran for Senator in 1992, receiving 31% of the vote, and for mayor of Topeka in 1993 and 1997....

After finding out Rev. Fred Phelps Sr. was on the verge of death many quipped the Westboro Baptist Church, the very organization he founded, would picket his funeral like they have so many others in the past. It might sound like a joke but apparently it’s the real deal: the WBC will hold a demonstration at the funeral of their former pastor.Rev. Fred Phelps Sr., the founder of the Westboro Baptist Church, was reportedly excommunicated from the group.Phelps Sr., 84, began to make headlines over the weekend after his estranged son Nathan posted a note to Facebook where he said...

Fred Phelps Sr., the founder of the Kansas church held in disgust worldwide for its antigay protests of prominent funerals, is in hospice care and "on the edge of death," according to one of his estranged sons. Nate Phelps posted the information on Facebook Saturday night, adding the revelation that his father had been excommunicated from the church in 2013. A church spokesman told the Topeka Capitol-Journal that Phelps was indeed in the hospice but that Nate Phelps "is not well informed." The spokesman also refused to comment on the allegation that the elder Mr. Phelps has been excommunicated. Another...

You know Fred Phelps. You loathe Fred Phelps. You despise everything he stands for, like his family members’ infamous protests at soldiers’ funerals with their awful “God Hates Fags” signs. They’ve been a symbol for many years of the religion-based animosity against the LGBT community — to the point that they’ve been labeled a “hate group” and even the most fundamentalist Christian groups denounce his church’s activities.... /snip/... Tonight, on Facebook, Nate (one of Fred's sons, excommunicated from the church) posted this: I’ve learned that my father, Fred Phelps, Sr., pastor of the “God Hates Fags” Westboro Baptist Church, was...

The estranged son of the founder of the Westboro Baptist Church said his father is "on the edge of death." Fred Phelps Sr. became famous for organizing picket lines of brightly-colored signs carrying hateful messages against tolerance during the funerals of military personnel and famous figures. His actions led to at least two federal and several state laws restricting protests during military funerals. In a statement on his Facebook page, Nathan Phelps, who has been estranged from his father for 30 years, said the senior Phelps was dying in hospice care in Topeka, Kan., and that he had been ex-communicated...