Friday, May 07, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

`THE LARAMIE PROJECT': Anti-gay group targets LV school

Protest set on content of student play

The cast and crew of the Las Vegas Academy production of "The Laramie Project" prepares for a show Thursday night. The play relates reactions to the 1998 beating death of an openly gay college student and has made the school the target of a protest by an anti-gay crusader who is a character in the play. Photo by K.M. Cannon. Las Vegas Academy freshman Danielle DeCuir and mother Annette support a play that has become a target of protest. Annette DeCuir plans to attend an anti-gay rally Wednesday. Photo by K.M. Cannon.

An extreme religious group from Topeka, Kan., is bringing its picketing ministry to the sidewalks around the Las Vegas Academy next week to protest the student production of the "The Laramie Project."

The play is built around the reactions of Laramie, Wyo., residents to the 1998 beating death of 21-year-old Matthew Shepard, who was an openly gay student at the University of Wyoming.

The Westboro Baptist Church, led by Pastor Fred Phelps, claims the play promotes homosexuality. Stephen Clark, principal of the only fine arts magnet school in the Clark County School District, said that's absolutely false.

"The play is about how the people of the town felt," Clark said. "It's almost like a documentary.

"It has nothing to do with promoting homosexuality."

News of the church's upcoming picket began circulating Wednesday, when a flier about the event, dubbed a "love crusade" by the church, was passed out around the downtown campus. Westboro's church Web site, www.god- hatesfags.com, promotes the protest this way :

"WBC to picket sodomite whorehouse masquerading as Las Vegas Academy and the Pied Piper from Hell Principal Stephen Clark -- 6:30 to 7 a.m., Wed., May 12, at 315 S. 7th St., Las Vegas, Nev. -- in religious protest & warning: `God is not mocked! God hates Fags! & Fag Enablers! Ergo, God hates Las Vegas Academy, Clark, the school board and all responsible for leading the kids to lives of sin, shame, misery, disease, death and Hell by inculcating in them the Satanic lie that It's OK to be gay!' "

A representative of the church could not be reached for comment Thursday.

"The fact that this is a church saying it is what makes it so horrendous," said Las Vegas Academy parent Annette DeCuir, whose daughter, Danielle DeCuir is a freshman. "That, and the fact that they're targeting children. It's so wrong."

DeCuir said she plans to be at the protest, but not to pick a fight or to exchange words with anyone. She's going to stand for her daughter and her daughter's friends. It's a gesture Danielle DeCuir said she would appreciate.

"Before this, I never really thought about how people could have so much hatred in them," DeCuir said. "My family goes to church. We're Christian. In my opinion, God doesn't hate anyone. God loves his children for who they are."

Matthew Polzin, steering director of the Southern Nevada Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, said Phelps has forayed into Las Vegas before, staging protests that usually draw no more than a dozen participants. He also said Phelps has a personal interest in the play, which was written by Moises Kaufman and members of the Tectonic Theater Project. Phelps is one of the play's many characters because he protested at Shepard's funeral, calling the murdered college student an impenitent homosexual.

"He's picketing the play because it has to do with Matt," Polzin said. "And I think they're using that as leverage to get (media) coverage. In all honesty, I think this is going to blow up in their faces. It's only going to make more people want to see the play."

That effect is already evident. Danielle DeCuir attended an impromptu performance of the play staged by the actors Thursday after school in response to news of the protest. Clark has asked students and staff to ignore the protest and remain nonconfrontational.

"The best thing we can do is not validate their existence," said Clark, who noted the last showing of the play will be Saturday, before the protest even occurs.

DeCuir said she'll comply with Clark's request, but she said some students are planning a peaceful response.

"The students are going to wear angel wings in honor of Matthew Shepard," DeCuir said. "They use those in the play to drown out what Rev. Phelps is saying. I'm not going to do anything else. They want us to do something to fuel their fire, but we're not going to give them the satisfaction."

The Westboro church, which has been led by Phelps since 1955, protests regularly against other religions, government entities, schools and at community events. Their current calendar singles out the Las Vegas Academy, Boston City Hall, Topeka's upcoming commemoration of school desegregation, homemaking guru Martha Stewart, and churches representing Methodists, Lutherans and Nazarenes.

Since 1991, the church, described in its literature as an old-school or primitive Baptist Church, claims to have conducted more than 22,000 demonstrations.

Darnell Couthen, spokesman for the Clark County School District police, said additional law enforcement will be present at the school Wednesday. School police headquarters is on the academy campus.

"They have a right to be there and protest," Couthen said. "And we'll be there to make sure that the protest goes off in a safe manner."