Littering with hate.

The First Amendment protects the right of people to distribute literature. But that doesn't mean they can litter, according to police in Brattleboro, Vt., who arrested Connecticut resident Christopher Gearhart on February 17 for tossing antigay pamphlets onto sidewalks, lawns, and private driveways.

Gearhart said he came to Vermont to distribute the pamphlets, rifled "Is Homosexual Activity Normal?" and containing descriptions of gay sex, because of the state's civil unions law. The pamphlets were produced by Marietta. Ga.-based organization The Truth at Last, which among other things promotes the idea that the Holocaust never took place.

Curtiss Reed Jr., executive director of the Alana Community Organization in Brattleboro, said the Georgia group has been leafleting the town for several years, perhaps because it was once a stronghold for the Ku Klux Klan. "It's pretty disgusting," he said. "Last summer they had one on unequal justice for whites. This was the first homophobic pamphlet."