Leonard Pitts Jr Deems Fred Phelps is Gay

Posted on | March 2, 2006

I know I swore off writing about Fred Phelps and I hate writing anything more than just a link in one of my "In Brief" posts relating to Fred Phelps because I do not believe he should be given any attention. If you ignore problem behavior it tends to cease because it is not being reinforced. This is called extinguishing a response. Even with his disgusting desecration of Matthew Sheppard’s funeral, Fred’s little anti-gay protests have not really offered him that much lasting media attention and thus no lasting public attention. So Fred decided to degenerate even further and start to protest the funerals of our fallen military personnel and proclaiming it to be God’s retribution for America’s support of homosexuals. I could go on about how stupid that particular belief is given the virulent anti-gay sentiment that is in the Republican party which is ruling this nation at the moment, but that is beside the point.

While reading various news sources this morning I ran across a column by Leonard Pitts Jr. relating to Phelps that got me laughing because it expresses a view I have held ever since I discovered the existence of Fred Phelps and his Westboro Baptist "Church". Pitts sums it up in his first paragraph:

"Allow me to share with you an epiphany. I think Fred Phelps is gay."

I too share this belief that Fred Phelps is a homosexual himself and, like many of the more extreme homophobes seem to be these days, the grips of what is referred to as a Reaction Formation for which is defined in the Wikipedia as follows:

In Freud’s psychoanalytic theory, reaction formation is a defense mechanism in which anxiety-producing or unacceptable emotions are replaced by their direct opposites. For example, one who is strongly attracted to pornography, but has moral or religious obligations to avoid it, might become a staunch critic of it.

So what this means is that Fred Phelps is caused anxiety by his own homosexuality and that anxiety is expressed in the form of his unrelenting and tired ranting against homosexuality.

If this is the case, Phelps is not alone. Pitts lists cases like recently recalled Spokane, WA, mayor Jim West who built a political career targeting gays only to be exposed as just another older man on Gay.Com looking for younger guys. There is also Gary Cooper and Michael Bussee who were involved with what we now know as Exodus International and fell in love and denounced ex-gay organizations as frauds. Pitts also showed that this phenomenon is not limited to homophobia either. He cites the cases of Jimmy Swaggart, more recently known for making a statement that he would kill a gay man for coming onto him, who was caught with a prostitute prompting his tearful "I have sinned against you Lord" and Dr. Laura Slesinger’s nude photos.

In closing Pitts offers us readers some food for thought on Phelps:

"He needs not our condemnation but our understanding. Maybe someday he’ll find the strength to stop living this lie. He might just go on to be the greatest gay-rights activist this country has ever known. Maybe then, in the arms of the right man, he’ll stop hurting."

Blog Links:

Birmingham Blues

External Links:

The Detroit Free Press - Leonard Pitts Jr.: The Freedom to Offend

Filed Under Religion |

Comments

2 Responses to “Leonard Pitts Jr Deems Fred Phelps is Gay”

Kathy
March 2nd, 2006 @ 3:26 pm

Thanks for the link! I think Mr. Pitts is dead on right about Fred Phelps. And I feel quite sure that Fred will be faxing out one of his charming press releases condemning Mr. Pitts to hell. Of course, if everyone Fred condemned actually ended up in hell there would be a serious overcrowding problem — but probably a great party!
jay lassiter
March 3rd, 2006 @ 8:26 am

I’ve always thought our most rancid critics (phelps and co) are probably gay themselves.
I appreciate your closing though on the topic which actually calls for *understanding* in this instance. frankly, the only way i can managed to not be preoccupied with this goon is to pray for him.