Members of Fred Phelps' famed Westboro Baptist Church were conspicuously absent last night from their planned picketing of The Laramie Project at the Havana Theatre on Commercial Drive.
A large crowd of the play's supporters gathered outside the venue, ready for a confrontation with the evangelical Christian group. They yelled, honked and waved Pride flags, but the confrontation never came.
There was an air of disappointment among those who were clearly eager to assert themselves in the face of homophobic picketers. "How can they hate if they don't show up?" asked protester Leila Timmins.
The Kansas-based church is known for picketing the funerals of hate-crime victims with extreme signs stating that "God Hates Fags" and speaking out against homosexuality. They picketed the funeral of Matthew Shepard, whose brutal murder in Laramie, Wyoming in 1998 inspired Moises Kaufman's play The Laramie Project.
Fighting Chance Productions, a local theatre company, opened the play last night at Havana Theatre despite threats that the Westboro Baptist Church would picket the event. The theatre group asked the federal government to prevent the church's members from crossing the border in order to spread hate propaganda.
According to the church's press release, the play was targeted because "God hates fags and fag-enablers: ergo, God hates the Havana Theatre, Canada, Vancouver and all and everybody having anything to do with spreading sodomite lies…"
Despite the assertion that they were supposedly all going to hell, a small crowd of cheering protesters appeared to be having quite a nice time, listening to speeches from Vancouver MLA's Spencer Herbert and Shane Simpson, municipal politicians Ellen Woodsworth and Jane Bouey, Rev. Markus Duenzkofer of St. Paul's Anglican Church, as well as the cast of The Laramie Project.
Ironically, the failed actions of the extremist church brought together many members of the gay community, as well as giving the play enough publicity for a completely sold-out run. In light of this, many of the assembled supporters of the play joked that the real "fag-enabler" was Fred Phelps himself.
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joelguy
3 years ago
Please, please qualify your use of certain terms
..."evangelical" and "Christian," for instance.
Between the poles of the Westboro "Baptist" "Church", who get far too much attention for how small a group they are, and liberal Christianity, which seems to be comprised of much nicer people, there is a large proportion of Christians who take a traditional interpretation on the gay issue in scripture, and endeavour to follow thus.
It is not a popular view, but there is a difference between promoting hate, and trying to be faithful to one's conservative sexual ethics. The latter group can actually be quite loving. Though, some of them, also arrogant or lacking in sensitivity--granted.
brenton
3 years ago
Theatre group asked?
"The theatre group asked the federal government to prevent the church's members from crossing the border in order to spread hate propaganda."
You might want to check your sources for that sentence. From what I read, it wasn't the theatre group that asked.
From Xtra-west:
"But play director Ryan Mooney says let Phelps and his followers come.
Free speech is free speech no matter where the border is drawn, he says.
"We can't say we want to live in a country with free speech and not expect these things to happen," he says. "Just because you don't agree with what someone says doesn't mean they don't have the right to say it.""
Sarah_Buchanan
3 years ago
Sources
The Vancouver Sun reported on November 11th that "A Vancouver theatre group -- Fighting Chance Productions -- is asking the federal government to prevent an American anti-gay group from entering Canada in order to protest the company's production of The Laramie Project, a play about the murder of a gay man, Matthew Shepard," after speaking with Ryan Mooney.
I was surprised to discover this as well. It seems this fact was lost due to the sheer number of people that also asked the federal government to do the same thing, and the more important sentiment that although many people would prefer to keep hate crimes out of Canada, they are prepared to protest and support the project if they do manage to show up.
Thanks for bringing up the anomaly.
Here's a link to the story:
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/westcoastnews/story.html?id=93feb17e-3560-4242-9704-697a481ed27b