To those of you who think you know all about Fred Phelps, I had the displeasure to meet him and his family and parishioners back in May,1990 here in Wichita KS at only his 2nd anti-Gay protest [the first was a week earlier at the WICHITA EAGLE newspaper -because they published a mildly pro-Gay article]:

I was a leading Gay-community activist at the time and was filming a feature documentary about the planning for Wichita's first Gay Pride parade.

I knew Phelps wouldn't talk to me at all if I looked too queer, so I dressed "straight" complete with a gold wedding ring. The hateful old Bastard was running for Governor of the state of Kansas which is why he was such a media-whore... well, he was ALWAYS a media-whore... stick a microphone in his face and he'd spew scripture until his voice would crack.

Anyway, I strolled up to his protest, filming as I went, recording every detail of our encounter. I eventually shot exclusive footage of their protest march, tracking them with my camera as they trudged along [NOTE: many of those "GOD HATES FAGS" signs you saw years later were the originals from 1990!].

Phelps himself was the coldest man I've ever seen. His eyes were a piercing icy blue and he'd get this raptured look on his face as he rambled on an on. To soften him up I quizzed him on his candidacy and his stand on taxes. His big campaign promise was to abolish all state property taxes. That was his entire platform. That and suppression of homosexuality.

Phelps was a tall man [about 6'2"] and skinny as a rail. Skinny and mean-spirited to the core. In all, I spent about an hour with Phelps and his rabid tribe that Sunday morning taping the entire time. I talked to his son, his daughter Shirley [who became the visible spokesperson for the WBC later on] and several churchmembers. His son was a big Dufus wearing a WBC ballcap who was obvisouly flattered to have a camera pointed his way for a change. [ The following year I sent my edited protest footage to the producers of ABC's 20/20 show. Two months later they sent John Stoessel to Topeka to interview Fred and expose the church himself. ]

Fast forward seven weeks to Wichita's first Gay Pride parade. I was still shooting and of course Fred was there. So were alot of cops [who were very Gay-friendly and disliked Phelps' type of protests]. I caught up with the miserable creature as he was donning his garish nylon running jacket with the PHELPS FOR GOVERNOR sticker on the back. The cop just stood by an watched as I launched into my ambush. BTW: at the parade I was not wearing the same "straight" garb from our previous meeting. Let's just say I was out, but tasteful! Phelps immediately recognized me, flashed back about a month and knew he had been had. I asked him non-inflammatory questions and got terse replies. But I eventually backed him into a corner by addressing the weather.

It had been rainy in Wichita for several days and suddenly -on the Sunday of our parade- it was beautiful. Sunny, just warm enough and a light breeze. When I remarked that it seemed that God was smiling down on us with his 'blessed weather his ambiguous reply was "...it's a nice day to make a statement..." referring to his own presence. I then pressed, "well, wouldn't you agree that God had a hand in it..?" He stopped, glared at me and muttered "...sure." Then a local radio reporter approached with his mic outstretched and Fred said: "...I think he wants to talk to me..." I lingered and got one last closeup of Fred's cold, emotionless eyes as they pierced the distance. He was off and running again.