CHICAGO (AP) – A campaign worker for Republican gubernatorial candidate Jim Oberweis is promoting a Web site that lambastes challenger Judy Baar Topinka for her support of gay rights.

Freelance Internet columnist J. Matt Barber wrote last week about www.stoptopinka.com, a Web site that carries the warning “Not Suitable for Children” and features photos and video of Topinka participating in Chicago’s Pride parade, an annual event that attracts thousands of spectators and some of the state’s most prominent politicians.

The Web site accuses Topinka of holding “extremely liberal values” more in line with Democrats than Republicans because she supports gay rights and is pro-choice. One photograph purports to show Topinka, the state’s treasurer, posing with same-sex marriage supporters.

Topinka’s moderate stances on social issues have been fodder during this primary campaign for her conservative opponents, including Oberweis.

Unlike Topinka, Oberweis supports reversing a state law banning discrimination based on sexual identity. He also wants to see a state constitutional amendment prohibiting same-sex marriage. Topinka, who opposes same-sex marriage, says an amendment is unnecessary.

Oberweis campaign manager Joe Wiegand said Barber had asked permission to let people know about the Web site, something that Wiegand said he felt “was appropriate for Matt to do.”

“I’m satisfied he did so in an honest and accurate way,” Wiegand said of Barber, who works as Oberweis’ DuPage County campaign coordinator. Wiegand said both he and Oberweis had seen the Web site, which calls Topinka “a pro-homosexual activist.”

When asked if he approved of the Web site, Wiegand said, “In the spirit of free speech, it’s not for us to approve or disapprove of factual content that’s on the Internet.”

Topinka spokesperson Roger Germann called the Web site “sad” and “disturbing.”

“She’s not a hater,” Germann said. “This clearly reeks of hatred toward a certain population, and she’s not like that.”

The Web site is the work of Peter LaBarbera, who is executive director of the conservative Illinois Family Institute, although LaBarbera says the Web site is his personal undertaking and not affiliated with his job there or with any campaign.

“This is not an Oberweis project in the least,” he said.

LaBarbera said he did the Web site because Topinka is trying to run from the liberal part of her agenda and “we’re just trying to get the word out.”

LaBarbera said he and Barber are friends, but he said Barber is not affiliated with the Web site. Barber said LaBarbera shares e-mails from the Web site with him.

Barber, who says he is paid by the Oberweis campaign, also says he is not associated with the Web site.

Barber said he wanted his column entitled “Battle for heart and soul of GOP – stoptopinka.com” to raise awareness and show the differences between Topinka and Oberweis. He called the information on the Web site “compelling and effective to that end.”

“It helps to highlight some of the liberal activism that Judy Baar Topinka has been involved in in past years,” Barber said.

One of the places that carried Barber’s column was the Web site of conservative Alan Keyes, who failed two years ago as the Republican candidate against Democrat Barack Obama in the race for a U.S. Senate seat from Illinois.

The state GOP imported Keyes from Maryland after the party’s original nominee, Jack Ryan, withdrew amid an embarrassing sex scandal.