Shirley Phelps-Roper

Shirley Phelps-Roper
Phelps-Roper in September 2007
Born	Shirley Lynn Phelps (1957-10-31) October 31, 1957 (age 59) Topeka, Kansas, U.S.
Residence	Topeka, Kansas
Spouse(s)	Brent Roper
Parent(s)	Fred Phelps
Relatives	Nathan Phelps (brother) Megan Phelps-Roper (daughter)

Shirley Lynn Phelps-Roper (born Shirley Lynn Phelps, October 31, 1957) is an American lawyer and political activist. She is best known as the former spokesperson of the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas, an organization known for its highly publicized homophobic public protests conducted under the slogan "God Hates Fags."

Shirley Phelps was born October 31, 1957 in Topeka, Kansas. She is the daughter of Margie Marie (Simms) and pastor Fred Phelps, minister of the Westboro Baptist Church, an independent church characterized as a hate group by the Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Phelps-Roper practices law 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.

Besides her father Fred, Shirley Phelps-Roper has been the most active 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 and the church have received media coverage for the group's aggressive preaching and controversial campaigns such as the picketing the funerals of AIDS victims with signs such as "God hates fags" and funeral processions for American soldiers killed in combat.

In 2014 it was reported that Phelps-Roper's duties as spokesperson for the Westboro Church had been reduced, and her authority transferred to an all-male board of elders.

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, 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.