BOISE, Idaho (AP) – The Kansas preacher whose bid to place a monument, condemning slain gay University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard, in a city park that was summarily rejected by the city council has been monitored for years by a national organization that tracks hate groups.

As it has in other communities, the controversy created by the Rev. Fred Phelps forced the city to move a Ten Command-ments monument that sat in the park since 1965 to the front of St. Michael’s Episcopal Cathedral across from the state Capitol.

“In the last few months, he’s been running around the country and the upshot is, he’s getting monuments removed right and left,” Southern Poverty Law Center spokesman Mark Potok said.

“He’s an embarrassment to religion everywhere,” Potok said. “I think Fred Phelps thinks about homosexual sex more than any other person on the planet.”

The Boise City Council rejected Phelps’ request without hearing from any of his followers, who came to Boise from Topeka, Kan., to press their case.

Phelps argued that since the Ten Commandments monument was on public property, the city was required to give him equal space where he wanted to erect a monument condemning Shepard, who was beaten to death in 1998 because he was gay.

The city undermined Phelps’ argument on March 29 when it moved the monument. To do that, however, it had to convince a federal judge to reject a petition from a religious group demanding that the monument remain on public ground.

The council denied Phelps’ petition without giving his supporters the opportunity to make a public case. Mayor Dave Bieter said no public hearing was required.

Following the decision, police officers led the small contingent from Kansas down a back stairwell of Boise City Hall to the street, where it had demonstrated against gays and lesbians earlier in the day.

“We were heard on the street,” said Margie Phelps, an attorney for the group and the daughter of Fred Phelps. She promised court action to force the city to accept the anti-gay monument on parkland.

During their demonstration, Margie Phelps and her colleagues waved signs declaring “God Hates Fags” and “Thank God for Sept. 11.” Human rights groups staged a counter demonstration in which they registered voters and quietly talked about the “disgusting and offensive” nature of the Kansas placards.

Phelps has set his sights on other Idaho communities, where local leaders were also preparing to take a stand.

The Rev. Jim Hardenbrook, who leads the Church of the Brethren in Nampa and serves as official chaplain for the Idaho House of Representatives, denounced Phelps and his claim to preach the word of God.

“This is as far from the teaching of Jesus as anyone I’ve ever met,” he said. “Jesus never promoted hatred.”