Funeral bill gets an OK

Utah will join Kentucky, Maryland and other states if the 2007 Legislature here passes a bill that would force protesters at military funerals to keep their distance from mourners.

The bill, which passed favorably out of a House committee Wednesday, is in addition to a federal law passed last year that bars protesters from coming within 300 feet of the entrance to a national cemetery and within 150 feet of a road into a national cemetery for an hour before and after a military funeral.

But the federal law only applies to Arlington National Cemetery and cemeteries under the control of the National Cemetery Administration. According to a Department of Veterans Affairs Web site, there are 124 official VA national cemeteries in 39 states, but none is in Utah.

At both the state and federal level, legislation is aimed mainly at a Kansas-based fundamentalist church that is notorious for picketing military funerals. Members of the Westboro Baptist Church chant outside at services and hold up signs, some of which read, "You Will Eat Your Children" and "Don't Worship the Dead."

Westboro members threatened to picket at two military funerals last year in Utah, but no protesters showed. Just this month, however, church members appeared at military funerals in New York and California and at former President Gerald Ford's burial in Michigan.

In Utah, Rep. Ron Bigelow, R-West Valley, is sponsoring HB205 titled, "Public Demonstrations At Funerals," which seeks to make it a class-B misdemeanor for anyone who "disrupts" a military memorial service.

Bigelow wants 200 feet to separate protesters from mourners, which would let grieving family members have privacy while preserving picketers' right to free speech. He also wants protesters to keep their distance from military funerals one hour before and after the service.

"Of course, you walk a fine line here with First Amendment rights," Bigelow told the House Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Committee.

If he had his way, Bigelow added, he'd put 200 miles and 60 days between the two sides. According to a news story at the Web site, www.firstamendmentcenter.org, South Dakota legislators last year passed a bill that bans protests within 1,000 feet of a funeral.

Supporting Bigelow Wednesday was Terry Schow, director of the Utah Division of Veterans Affairs.

"The hearts of families should not be trounced on," Schow said. "I think it's despicable."