British Government Bans Anti-Gay "Pastor" Fred Phelps From Country

February 20, 2009

Britain's government has banned anti-gay American pastor Fred Phelps from entering the country on the grounds he worked to incite hatred, officials said Thursday.

Britain's Border Agency said Phelps and his daughter, Shirley Phelps-Roper, would be turned back at the border if they attempted to enter the country - although it was not immediately clear whether either of them planned travel to Britain.

Phelps, who leads a tiny but fanatically anti-gay church in Topeka, Kansas, is particularly notorious for picketing the funerals of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq - deaths he believes are the result of God's fury at homosexuality.

"The government has made it clear it opposes extremism in all its forms," the border agency said in a statement. "The exclusions policy is targeted at all those who seek to stir up tension and provoke others to violence regardless of their origins and beliefs."

A Border Agency spokesman said Phelps had called for protests at a play about the murder of a gay man due to be shown in the English town of Basingstoke, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) west of central London.

The play, "The Laramie Project," reflects onthe 1998 slaying of Matthew Shepard, whose death shocked the country and prompted a re-evaluation of its attitude toward homosexuals.

It also propelled Phelps' into the national spotlight when members of his Westboro Baptist Church appeared at Shepard's funeral with signs bearing their the words: "God Hate Fags" and chanting: "Fags die, God laughs."

Phelps and his few dozen followers - most of the them relatives - would go on to picket thousands more funerals and memorials for homosexuals, victims of Sept. 11, and soldiers killed in Iraq, drawing outrage - and lawsuits.

The British government's decion to exclude Phelps for inciting hatred comes shortly after it was criticized for excluding a far-right Dutch lawmaker from the country on similar grounds.

Geert Wilders was turned back at London's Heathrow Airport last week. British authorities said the politician - who has called for a ban on the Qura- posed a threat to public security.