NARRATOR: Kerry Drake, Casper Star-Tribune:

KERRY DRAKE: … is seeing the Reverend Fred Phelps from Kansas … that scene go up in the park.

REVEREND FRED PHELPS: Do you believe the Bible? Do you believe you’re supposed to separate the precious from the vile? You don’t believe that part of the Bible? You stand over there ignorant of the fact that the Bible—two times for every verse it talks about God’s love it talks about God’s hate.

(REVEREND FRED PHELPS continues sotto voce.)

KERRY DRAKE: A bunch of high school kids who got out early came over and started yelling at some of these people in the protest—the Fred Phelps people—and across the street you had people lining up for the funeral.… Well, I remember a guy, this skinhead coming over, and he was dressed in leather and spikes everywhere, and he came over from across the street where the protest was and he came into the crowd and I just thought, “Oh, this is gonna be a really ugly confrontation” BUT instead he came over and he started leading them in “Amazing Grace.”

(The people sing “Amazing Grace.”)

REVEREND FRED PHELPS: We wouldn’t be here if this was just another murder the state was gonna deal with. The state deals with hundreds of murders every single day. But this murder is different, because the fags are bringing us out here trying to make Matthew Shepard into a poster boy for the gay lifestyle. And we’re going to answer it. It’s just that simple.

(REVEREND FRED PHELPS continues sotto voce.)

NARRATOR: Six months later, the company returned to Laramie for the trial of Russell Henderson, the first of the two perpetrators. It was to be a capital murder trial. When we got to the Albany County Courthouse, Fred Phelps was already there.

REVEREND FRED PHELPS: You don’t like that attribute of God.

NARRATOR: But so was Romaine Patterson.

REVEREND FRED PHELPS: That perfect attribute of God. Well, WE love that attribute of God, and we’re going to preach it. Because God’s hatred is pure. It’s a determination—it’s a determination that he’s gonna send some people to hell. That’s God’s hatred …

(Continues sotto voce.)

We’re standing here with God’s message. We’re standing here with God’s message. Is homosexuality—is being a fag okay? What do you mean it’s not for you to judge? If God doesn’t hate fags, why does he put ’em in hell?… You see the barrenness and sterility of your silly arguments when set over against some solid gospel truth? Barren and sterile. Like your lifestyle. Your silly arguments.