Phelps sued for protesting heros funeral

(Baltimore, Maryland) In what is believed to be the first civil lawsuit against the Rev. Fred Phelps' church over an anti-gay protest at the funeral of someone from the military killed in Iraq, the father of the dead Marine said the demonstration made him sick to his stomach and gave him nightmares.

Albert Snyder is suing Phelps and his Topeka, Kan.-based church after church members demonstrated at the funeral of Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder last year in Maryland, and then posted pictures of the protest on their Web site.

Cpl. Snyder was killed in March, 2006.

"They turned this funeral into a media circus and they wanted to hurt my family," Albert Snyder testified.

"They wanted their message heard and they didn't care who they stepped over. My son should have been buried with dignity, not with a bunch of clowns outside."