Protesters and counter-protesters battle over GCC play
By Alexandria MarlarFreelance Reporter, The VOICE
Saturday night was supposed to be a night filled with confrontation, anger, and a melancholy attitude, but the exact opposite happened on that November 22 when the Glendale Community College(GCC) community and many others stood, over one hundred strong, against the Westburo Baptist Church.
Photo by Alexandria Marlar/The VOICE
GCC Laramie Project play protesters standing up for their own beliefs. The play focuses on the life and death of hate crime victim Matthew Shepard.
The Church is known for their message of "God Hates America" and their mission on Saturday night was to break down the workings of this fall's production of The Laramie Project.
The Laramie Project is the story of Matthew Shepard's murder in Laramie, Wyoming when he was robbed, brutally beaten, tortured, and was tied to a chain-link fence to die. This was done just because he was a homosexual.
The Laramie Project is criticized heavily by the Westburo Baptist Church.
The Church feels that anyone who is gay will end up in hell and that is where Matthew Shepard currently is. They feel that this production, along with many others, is continuously causing more pain and suffering to Shepard.
Westburo has been protesting for years since the church was first started by Fred Phelps Sr.
The Phelps' children and grandchildren continue to protest the views of the church; they have gone as far as to protest at deceased soldiers' funerals. The members have stated that the soldiers are in hell because of their fight to save a "Fagnation."
Many do not know the back-story of the Phelps family and by pure luck I found someone who personally knew the family as she lived in Topeka, Kansas, where the church was started.
She also attended law school at Washburn University with one of the children. Brenda Braden, city attorney of Tualatin, Oregon and ex-deputy attorney general of Kansas, has lost a homosexual son to AIDS and was constantly taunted by the Westburo Church members when she attended the Episcopalian Church in Topeka. She was told that she raised her son to be gay and it was her own fault that he had caught the AIDS virus.
The Phelps family can be looked at as more of a cult considering their church consists of seventy members, the majority being Phelps family relation.
Braden said that Fred Phelps Sr., every night, sent his children out to sell candy and magazine subscriptions until they met their quota. If the children failed to meet this quota they would be "locked out until they did."
Many of the children grew to be lawyers, specializing in civil rights, and many of them began to abuse their power by filing frivolous lawsuits. They had become "lawsuit-happy" as Braden puts it. This continuous abuse lead to two of the children's temporary suspension to practice law by the state of Kansas and even Fred Sr. was permanently disbarred by the state.
The group still goes on today with the help of Shirley Phelps and her own family. Their many different protests against the world has brought everyone else at attention.
Saturday night GCC and the community were prepared to defend their own rights.
As all of the advocates for the show stood outside of the Performing Arts Center in peace, one of the leaders of the organization H.E.R.O., Annie Lloyd, lead the group in many gospels to demonstrate a more passive protest. One of the songs "This Little Light of Mine" not only brought a sense of hope but it helped the group to truly stand together as one. H.E.R.O. continued to honor their goal, to help Human and Equal Rights, when Annie Lloyd said, "We stand here in peace and we stand here committed."
Only three activists of the Westburo Baptist Church showed up that night but, when they saw how strong their opponents were in numbers, they circled the outskirts of GCC and eventually left.
It was a great night for The Laramie Project not only was the show a hit but no one could stop them from telling story of a man who's life was unfairly cut short because of his sexual orientation.
