Will university officials let their own judgments get in the way of defending the honor of Iowa State? The current chaos involving anti-gay activist Fred Phelps should be the test.

Phelps and other members of the Westboro Baptist Church (WBC) in Topeka, Kan., first captured the attention of the ISU community in April when they announced plans to picket the spring graduation ceremony on May 9.

According to Phelps, his group contended that ISU has “university-sanctioned homosexual activity” taking place in its community, particularly because of a campus gay-lesbian organization and the Lord of Life Lutheran Church, where Steve Sabin is active as a gay pastor.

But Phelps and his advocates may have stepped on more toes than just offended students, faculty and members of the Ames community.

Apparently, the group infringed upon copyright policy when it printed the ISU logo on signs for their protest, in addition to utilizing the Cy logo and donning the message “ISU fags” on the church’s Web site.

And now ISU has the chance to fight fire with fire — the university’s Trademarks and Licensing Office currently is discussing legal action against the WBC.

Strangely, but not so surprisingly, the university has done nothing about the situation.

Copyright infringement is a serious issue, but also one that is being ignored.

Could university officials be dragging their feet because of the underlying issue at hand?

According to Curt Lund, a member of Iowa State’s Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Ally Alliance, the university may be hesitating to press charges due to the nature of the issue. Perhaps pressing charges against WBC would be perceived as a political move by ISU to stand up for the local LGBT community.

Should worries over taking a political stance on LGBT issues stop ISU from pressing charges in this case, the university would be making a grievous error.

The “ISU fags” message is offensive to all students, not only to the LGBT community, and Phelps’ people made it very clear that their message of hatred was directed toward everyone at Iowa State.

Phelps is well-known for his underhanded legal tricks, and he has tested the patience of many people who have no connection whatsoever to the LGBT community.

ISU must press charges against WBC. Phelps has gone out of his way to hurt us all.