Jul 04, 2005 — Locals in Plattsburgh have been bracing for months for the visit of Fred Phelps, a radical anti-gay activist from Topeka, Kansas. Phelps and his small group of followers targeted Plattsburgh churches over the weekend because the city's mayor, Dan Stewart, is openly gay. The Phelps family pickets regularly at the funerals of AIDs victims and - more recently - at the funerals of soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. But the visit to Plattsburgh appears to have backfired for Phelps, sparking an enormous display of support for diversity and tolerance. As Brian Mann reports, local activist groups and churches hope their response will be used as a model in other communities.