I'm sure Joseph Noonan (no relation) can speak for himself. But i want to jump in and challenge Chris Burford's support for laws banning hate speech on my own.
Burford naively expects the cops in Kansas to enforce hate speech prohibition when it is those same cops that frequently bust gays, but rarely straights, for sex in public, sodomy or oral sex (which are still illegal here). If the actions that make queers queer are still prohibited by the state how can Burford expect that same state to defend what it views as criminal elements in the first place?
Here at Kansas State University, 40 miles from Phelps church in Topeka, people have fought Phelps by shouting him down, ridiculing him, hacking Ben Phelps web-page (a one-time student here), throwing water balloons and vegetables and physical assualt. In Topeka itself the Westborough baptist church has on occasion been pelted with buckshot.
None of this is sufficient to change real power relations as Joseph Noonan aptly put it. Kansas is an deeply reactionary state where mainstream politics is delimited by fundamentalist christian nutters, small farmers, rural towns and big business conservatives. Without much larger numbers of people willing to take direct action Phelps will continue his noxious preaching. Nevertheless, the limited direct action has been relatively successful in humiliating and ostracizing Phelps from what passes for legitimate politics in these parts.
Sean Noonan seanno at ksu.edu