posted on October 19, 2004 10:48:00 PM new
About 45 miles north of Detroit is a small town called St. Clair. The town has a population of about 5,000 people, mostly being Caucasian. Many people in the area consider St. Clair to be an exclusive zip code, and is next to East China Township. A quick check on Yahoo maps says the Topeka, Kansas and St. Clair, Michigan is about 909 miles apart.
'Laramie' play may draw protest. Play about gay killing draws fire.
Kansas church group plans to protest East China production.
EAST CHINA TWP. -- Protest threats won't stop the curtain from going up on St. Clair High School's production of The Laramie Project, a play about the beating death of a gay man, scheduled to open Thursday in the East China Performing Arts Center.
Director Mark Eberhard said the show will go on, and school officials don't believe students' safety is at risk even after learning members of a Topeka, Kan., church have said they will picket the venue.
Westboro Baptist Church has indicated 10 to 12 church members plan to protest the high school production of The Laramie Project, a show based on more than 200 interviews with Laramie, Wyo., residents after the October 1998 death of Matthew Shepard, an openly gay University of Wyoming student. The play runs Thursday through Saturday.
The Rev. Fred Phelps, an anti-gay activist and leader of Westboro Baptist Church, is depicted as one of the play's characters because of his involvement in picketing Shepard's funeral.
Phelps and his followers have protested productions of the show at high schools, colleges and professional theaters around the country.
The protests have been traditionally nonviolent.
Westboro members said the pickets are their way of spreading their beliefs.
"High school-age kids are very impressionable," church member Betty Phelps said.
"They're being given the impression that it's OK to be gay, and we're about spreading the message that it's not OK."
The school decided to present the play to spread the anti-hate-crime message, Eberhard said.
"It's really about hate crimes and stopping hate crimes," he said of the play. "This church seems to interpret it as a play that encourages the gay lifestyle."
Betty Phelps said she doesn't know if the Rev. Fred Phelps will join the protest.
It depends on his schedule, which she said includes daily protests around the Topeka area and weekend protests around the country. Last weekend, the group traveled to protest in Alabama.
Dave Simpson, East China Performing Arts Center manager, said the school district will have heightened awareness during the event but isn't planning any other security changes for the three shows. St. Clair County Sheriff Department officials said Monday the person responsible for handling such matters was out of the office.
St. Clair County Community College presented The Laramie Project on Oct. 15, 16 and 17 in Port Huron without protests from Westboro.
Someone did put graffiti with anti-gay messages on the outside of the college's Fine Arts Building at some point during the production's run, said Wally Horsey, a cast member in the SC4 presentation.
"I'm a little bit surprised," Horsey, who portrayed Phelps, said of the protest.
"I would figure Port Huron, Michigan, would be insignificant to them."
Eberhard doesn't know how the picket will affect ticket sales for the high school production, as all tickets are sold at the door.
Scott Frazer is chairman of Blue Water Pride, a gay, lesbian, bisexual and trans-gender advocacy and education group. He isn't surprised the group is coming to East China Township.
He said Westboro members have a right to protest, but their message is false.
I don't care if Matthew Shepard was gay or straight. He was a HUMAN BEING who was brutally murdered. He had parents, grandparents and siblings. A portion of them were murdered too.
posted on October 20, 2004 05:07:08 AM new
Wrong as usual yeager, if he hadn't been homosexual there would be no play... many good young men and women die everyday... I don't see plays about them...
Just some homosexual that made a bad choice...
He shouldn't of been killed, that was wrong. Only because now he doesn't have a chance to correct his mistake.
posted on October 20, 2004 08:18:34 AM new
twelve says,
"if he hadn't been homosexual there would be no play"
Actually you are the one who is wrong. If he wasn't MURDERED, there wouldn't be any play, or movie, or websites about him, or memorials, or new coverage. If you were so ignorant and homophobic, there would be no need to reply to YOU!
Just a little update on this........
Many civil rights groups including the Triangle Foundation of Michigan, Michigan American Civil Liberties Union, Safe Horizons and A Season for Nonviolence plan to counter protest this the "good reverend's" bigotry.
The goal is to try and establish a hate-free zone around the perimeter of the auditorium on the street so that the performers and attendees are not exposed to the Phelps.
It seems that Phelps is actually getting the word out about this play with his actions. I didn't know about it until this happened.
BTW, what in you mind am I wrong about this time?
Bigots are miserable people. Prevent Bigotry through Education.
Prevent Bigotry through Education.