Shirley Phelps-Roper
Encyclopedia
Shirley Lynn Phelps-Roper (born October 31, 1957) is an American lawyer
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...

 and political activist. She is best known as the spokesperson of the controversial Westboro Baptist Church
Westboro Baptist Church
The Westboro Baptist Church is an independent Baptist church known for its extreme stance against homosexuality and its protest activities, which include picketing funerals and desecrating the American flag. The church is widely described as a hate group and is monitored as such by the...

 of Topeka, Kansas
Topeka, Kansas
Topeka |Kansa]]: Tó Pee Kuh) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Kansas and the county seat of Shawnee County. It is situated along the Kansas River in the central part of Shawnee County, located in northeast Kansas, in the Central United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was...

, an organization known for its highly publicized public protests conducted under the slogan "God Hates Fags."

Biography

Shirley L. Phelps-Roper was born October 31, 1957 in Topeka, Kansas
Topeka, Kansas
Topeka |Kansa]]: Tó Pee Kuh) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Kansas and the county seat of Shawnee County. It is situated along the Kansas River in the central part of Shawnee County, located in northeast Kansas, in the Central United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was...

. She is the daughter of disbarred attorney and pastor Fred Phelps
Fred Phelps
Fred Waldron Phelps, Sr. is an American pastor heading the Westboro Baptist Church , an independent Baptist church based in Topeka, Kansas...

, minister of the Westboro Baptist Church
Westboro Baptist Church
The Westboro Baptist Church is an independent Baptist church known for its extreme stance against homosexuality and its protest activities, which include picketing funerals and desecrating the American flag. The church is widely described as a hate group and is monitored as such by the...

, an independent church
Independent church
Independent church may refer to:* National church, especially in Anglicanism and Orthodox Christianity, the organisation of that denomination within a given nation, which acts independently of the churches of the same denomination in other nations....

 often characterized as a hate group
Hate group
A hate group is an organized group or movement that advocates and practices hatred, hostility, or violence towards members of a race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation or other designated sector of society...

. She and the church have received widespread media coverage on news outlets such as the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

 and Fox News for the group's aggressive preaching and controversial campaigns such as the picketing the funerals of AIDS
AIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...

 victims with signs such as "God hates fags" and funeral procession
Funeral procession
A funeral procession is a procession, usually in motor vehicles, from a church, synagogue, or mosque to the cemetery. The deceased is usually transported in a hearse, while family and friends follow in their vehicles.- Standard procedure :...

s for American soldiers killed in combat.

Phelps-Roper received a B.A.
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...

 in Criminal Justice from Washburn University
Washburn University
Washburn University is a co-educational, public institution of higher learning in Topeka, Kansas, USA. It offers undergraduate and graduate programs, as well as professional programs in law and business. Washburn has 550 faculty members, who teach more than 6,400 undergraduate students and...

 in Topeka, Kansas in 1979 and a J.D.
Juris Doctor
Juris Doctor is a professional doctorate and first professional graduate degree in law.The degree was first awarded by Harvard University in the United States in the late 19th century and was created as a modern version of the old European doctor of law degree Juris Doctor (see etymology and...

 degree from Washburn in 1981. She practices for Phelps-Chartered Co., the Phelps family's law firm established by her father in 1964, and is currently licensed to practice before all Kansas courts up through the United States Supreme Court.

Phelps-Roper was a named a defendant in the Supreme Court case Snyder v. Phelps
Snyder v. Phelps
Snyder v. Phelps was a case heard by Supreme Court of the United States on whether the First Amendment protected protests of public protestors at a funeral against tort liability. It involved a claim of intentional infliction of emotional distress made by Albert Snyder, the father of Matthew...

.

Besides her father Fred, Shirley Phelps-Roper has been the most public spokesperson of the Westboro Baptist Church and answers many of the e-mails sent to the church in a column called "Dear Shirley."

Phelps-Roper is the wife of Brent D. Roper, and a mother of 11 children. In a 2007 UK documentary by Welsh personality Keith Allen, in which Phelps-Roper and some of her children agreed to appear, Phelps-Roper is shown admitting on camera that her oldest son was born out of wedlock. Allen found hypocritical Phelps-Roper's vocal condemnation on strangers having sexual congress outside of marriage while she herself was guilty of the same. According to Kansas City's The Pitch, Phelps-Roper doesn't deny that her son Sam, who was later adopted by Brent Roper, was born out of wedlock but refuses to reveal the identity of his biological father. The article states that estranged family members claim he was a man who was staying at a halfway house
Halfway house
The purpose of a halfway house, also called a recovery house or sober house, is generally to allow people to begin the process of reintegration with society, while still providing monitoring and support; this is generally believed to reduce the risk of recidivism or relapse when compared to a...

 where she was doing her college internship.

She is currently on the list of individuals banned from entering the United Kingdom for "fostering extremism or hatred."

Arrest

Phelps-Roper was arrested on June 5, 2007, on suspicion of contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Police alleged that she allowed her son to trample an American flag while protesting the funeral of a soldier in Bellevue, Nebraska
Bellevue, Nebraska
Bellevue is a city in Sarpy County, Nebraska, United States. The population was 50,137 at the 2010 census. Eight miles south of Omaha, Bellevue is part of the Omaha-Council Bluffs metropolitan area. Originally settled in the 1830s, It was the first state capitol. Bellevue was incorporated in...

, which is a misdemeanor in the state. Phelps-Roper announced her intent to challenge the constitutionality of the Nebraska statute. The charges against her were subsequently dropped when she agreed to dismiss pending lawsuits filed against Sarpy County in state and federal court.

External links

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