Laramie.

For my generation this has grave meaning, we remember the tortured death of Mathew Shepard that lead to a federal bias law, the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr., Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009.

For those who are not familiar with his murder, the Guardian wrote this after the 25 anniversary of his murder,

On October 7 1998, Matthew Shepard, a young, gay student at the University of Wyoming, was found badly beaten and barely alive, lashed to a fence in the hills outside the small mid-west town of Laramie (population: 26,000). His attackers, two young, ill-educated local men the same age as Shepard, who had picked him up from a local bar, robbed him and left him to die in the wilderness, were quickly apprehended. Five days later, Shepard died, as journalists descended, making snap judgements about why this homophobic crime had taken place, what it meant about Laramie, and what it said about the state of America. Then the media melted away.

At that this point, the Tectonic Theater Project moved in. Members of the company went to Laramie and spent over a year interviewing locals. The result is a remarkable piece of verbatim theatre that pieces together the story of Shepard and presents a detailed portrait of a small US town, in the residents' own words.

From his murder a play was written, “The Laramie Project.”

The play described his murder and the trial, but it also had the “Angles”* which was people dressed like angles with sheets as wings to block the protests be an anti-LGBTQ+ church protesters by Westboro Baptist Church. And now there is a court case that says that the play Laramine Protect discriminates against religion. The play is about a historic event!

School must face Christian bias claim over staging of 'Laramie Project,' U.S. court says
Corey McNellis said he was fired at a Colorado high school for offering “a Christian perspective” on a school play about the murder of a gay college student.
NBC News
By Reuters
September 11. 2024

A U.S. appeals court on Tuesday revived religious discrimination claims by the former assistant principal of a Colorado high school who says he was fired for offering “a Christian perspective” on a school play about the murder of a gay college student.

A unanimous three-judge panel of the Denver-based 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said plaintiff Corey McNellis could proceed with a bias lawsuit against the Douglas County School District because school administrators allegedly cited his “religious comments” about the play as the basis for his 2020 firing.

McNellis in an email exchange with the school’s theater director and other faculty members suggested that as a Christian he disagreed with students staging a production of "The Laramie Project," which depicts the aftermath of the 1998 murder of Matthew Shepard, a gay college student in Wyoming.

The 10th Circuit panel said a Colorado federal judge was wrong to rule that McNellis could not prove his religious bias claims under federal and Colorado laws because he had not alleged that the school district treated him differently than non-Christian coworkers.

The Catholic Vote reports,

Following an October email from the theater department to all school staff announcing the play, McNellis responded by email, asking, “As a Dad of a student here and also as an employee in the school, what is my recourse if I disagree with the production? Was this a heads up to see if everyone was cool?”

The Assistant Principal and father of a family followed up with subsequent emails, in which he stated, “As a [C]hristian I would love to collaborate with your project… Please let me know if the love that Jesus can provide will help your play.”

McNellis also stated that he stood alone within the administration in his objections to the play and its content. “For the record, all of administration does not agree with me on this” he said in an email. “I am totally solo… Forgive me for having a different viewpoint and the audacity to publicly share it.”

McNellis was subsequently placed on administrative leave by the Douglas County School District and investigated for his “religious comments” regarding the play. He complained at the time to the school’s Principal, Mr. Ottmann, and several colleagues that he was facing investigation “based on his Christian beliefs.”

Okay, from what I read I don’t know if the firing was justified, just sending the email I don’t see as justifying the firing.

What I do question is what he sees as a problem “As a [C]hristian I would love to collaborate with your project…” what do they see wrote with the play? It is pretty straight forward discription of what happened during the murder and the trial. Lit Charts writes,

The Laramie Project
by Moisés Kaufman

Religion is a strong presence in Laramie, and many people of different faiths are represented in The Laramie Project. For those people, the religious teachings with which they grew up tend to influence the prejudice or acceptance with which they view Matthew Shepard. Because of this, the town’s religious leaders have tremendous power to shape public opinion, and their reactions to Matthew’s death reflect the reactions of the town at large. Through its focus on several of the town’s religious leaders, The Laramie Project grapples, in particular, with the ambiguous ethics of situations in which religious doctrine seems to inspire or justify immoral acts.

[…]

Meanwhile, the most extreme minister in Laramie, the Baptist minister, equivocates when asked about the violence against Matthew. Effectively, the Baptist minister weighs Matthew's sexuality against his murder, suggesting that Matthew may have deserved to be murdered because of his sexuality. The Baptist Minister, in believing that Matthew’s brutal death might be God’s punishment, seems to view God as a figure to be feared rather than a figure of love and mercy. Fred Phelps, a minister from the notorious Westboro Baptist Church, provides an extreme example of hate-focused religious interpretation when he protests Matthew Shepard’s funeral, shouting horrible things about God’s wrath. Fred Phelps’s church is a Christian church, and so it is based in the same texts and traditional doctrine as the Baptist, Catholic, or Mormon churches. Through Fred Phelps’s presence, the play shows how the same general religion (Christianity) that Father Schmit interprets as obligating him to hold a vigil for Matthew can also inspire someone to promote the same kind of violence that killed Matthew.

Okay, I don’t understand what they want, do they not like the truth about the murder? Or the fact that the Westboro Baptist Church protested with homophobic signs at his funeral? Or the counter protests by the Angles?

Now if the religious leaders get their way, then I think that the affirming churches should also get the say.

 

*****

 

*Angles

During the 1999 trial proceedings against Matt’s killer Aaron McKinney, the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas protested in front of the courthouse in Laramie, Wyoming while waving vulgar signs and shouting hate speech. Matt’s friend Romaine Patterson and others fashioned angel costumes with broad white wings and encircled the church group, spreading their wings to make them impossible to see from the crowd where media cameras were located. This act is immortalized in the play (and later HBO production of) The Laramie Project.