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Kansas church a no-show at OLLU play

Published: Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Updated: Tuesday, March 30, 2010 21:03

Gay and Lesbian Association

Tyler K. Cleveland

Liberal arts sophomore Maxine Dickinson and members of the Gay and Lesbian Association at this college protest with students of other universities at Our Lady of the Lake University Saturday, March 27. Students gathered to protest against Westboro Bapitist Church's support of the play performed at Our Lady of the Lake about the Matthew Shepard, a 21-year-old homosexual who was beaten and left on the side of the road on the night of October 6, 1998, dying four days later.

Gay and Lesbian Association

Tyler K. Cleveland

Members of the Gay and Lesbian Association at this college protest with students of other universities at Our Lady of the Lake University Saturday, March 27. Students gathered to protest against Westboro Bapitist Church's support of the play performed at Our Lady of the Lake about the Matthew Shepard, a 21-year-old homosexual who was beaten and left on the side of the road on the night of October 6, 1998, dying four days later.

Members of this college's Gay and Lesbian Association and other demonstrators Saturday showed support for the showing of "The Laramie Project" at Our lady of the Lake University, although a protest by an infamous group from Kansas did not materialize.

Westboro Baptist Church of Kansas failed to show up to its scheduled picket of "The Laramie Project" Saturday at Our Lady of the Lake University.

The Westboro Baptist Church is a group that has been known to picket against funerals, plays and events that are for what church member Zach Phelps-Roper calls "fags and fag enablers."

Despite the no-show, members of the Alliance of OLLU and guests showed support of the play, based on the case of Matthew Shepard, a gay man who was murdered in his hometown of Laramie, Wyo., Oct. 12, 1998.

About 100 demonstrators with at least 20 from this college's GALA Saturday evening lined the sidewalk at Southwest 24th and West Commerce streets.

"I think Westboro didn't show up because they knew there was going to be massive support for the gay community here, and they decided to stay away," English Instructor Richard Faris, Gay and Lesbian Association adviser, said Saturday at the demonstration.

In addition to GALA and OLLU's Alliance, Trinity University's Sexual Diversity Alliance also was represented.

"We found out about this online and decided we've got to be there," Caitlin Dillon, Trinity University political science, history and economics senior, said Saturday.

Along with the GLBT organizations, two OLLU social work seniors, Leticia Bocanegra and Raquel Mauricio, put together a group to join the protest as well, along with seven others as part of a social-learning project. Social work students at OLLU are required to complete two social-learning projects before they graduate.

Even though Westboro Baptist Church representatives did not show up, "We still counter-protested to make a stand because it's the right thing to do," Bocanegra said.

Officials with Westboro could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

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1 comments

Anonymous
Thu Apr 1 2010 05:14
The Westboro Baptist church of Kansas makes me sick. Do they forget it's the U.S. soldiers who make their precious 1st amendment possible to be practiced? If I were to be at a fallen friends funeral, and saw these "christians" protesting against it, well, lets just say some people are worth 25-to life in prison. Whoever has been burning churches down across america lately forgot the only one that needs to be burnt down...Westboro Baptist! (Hopefully they do, and if so, hopefully they do it while they are all in service, lock the doors, and listen to the melodic screems.) See if anyone comes to their funerals.






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