Cheyenne, Wyo. ? City officials are weighing options in the event an anti-gay Kansas clergyman decides to try to put up a monument condemning slain college student Matthew Shepard.

Pastor Fred Phelps, of Topeka, is attempting to erect a monument in Casper, Shepard’s hometown, and other cities where the Ten Commandments are displayed.

Phelps said displaying a Ten Commandments monument forces a city to allow other religious displays as well, including his own.

Last week, Casper officials rejected his request and decided to move the Ten Commandments monument from City Park to a historic plaza next year.

Phelps has vowed litigation or a fight to put his monument in the new plaza. He has also said he may buy private land for the marker.

Cheyenne also has a Ten Commandments display, on the northern end of Lions Park, and officials have been discussing what to do with it.

“I think there are as many options as there are ideas,” Mayor Jack Spiker said.

Spiker said several City Council members approached him to talk about Phelps and the Ten Commandments monument.

They have come up with several options, including:

• Giving the 4-foot-by-1-foot section of land back to its donor, Union Pacific Railroad. That way the monument could remain where it is but on private property.
• Selling or giving the land to a church, ministerial association or individual. Spiker said a few residents have told him they are willing to buy the monument and display it on their own property.
• Following the example of other cities, such as Fort Collins, Colo., which created a “cornerstone of law” area where displays such as the Declaration of Independence, Magna Carta, U.S. Constitution and Ten Commandments can stand.

It is not likely messages such as Phelps’ would fall under the category of a “cornerstone of law,” Cheyenne City Atty. Mike Basom said.

Phelps argues the First Amendment gives him the right to put up his monuments on public property, but the U.S. Supreme Court so far has not ruled on that or the public display of the Ten Commandments.

Lower courts have ruled that monuments or plaques that are religious in nature are allowed on public property if displayed where the public is not forced to view them.

“My goal is to be proactive so that we have the time to do the right thing,” Councilman Joe Bonds said.

Bond said the city has been and he hopes will continue to be receptive to different ideas and groups.

“But I think Reverend Phelps is the ugly part of that diversity, and I don’t think we want to go there,” he said.

Councilman Tom Scherr said the Ten Commandments monument has stood in Lions Park for years, and he doubts a lot of residents were even aware of it until news of Phelps’ intentions became public.

“Now the Ten Commandments will probably end up in a place where everybody sees them,” he said. “Not that that’s good or bad. It’s just kind of ironic.”

Phelps is proposing a display with an inscription reading: “Matthew Shepard entered hell October 12, 1998, at age 21 in defiance of God’s warning: ‘Thou shalt not lie with mankind as with womankind; it is abomination.’ Leviticus 18:22.”

Shepard died five days after he was beaten into a coma by two Laramie men who were later convicted and sent to prison for life.