Anti-Gay Protestors Coming to Duke

Colleges & Universities Duke University
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<p>Anti-gay protesters to picket near Duke
by Emily Almas
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<p>Protesters made famous for picketing the funeral of Matthew Shepard with their “God Hates Fags” campaign are slated to make an appearance near the University May 6. A group from Pastor Fred Phelps’ Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kan., said they will picket near the Main Street entrance to East Campus.</p>

<p>“There is a God, a standard, a day of judgment, a Hell and it’s not okay to be gay,” said Shirley Phelps-Roper, Phelps’ 47-year-old daughter, who is in charge of planning and executing the group’s demonstrations across the country. “If you live that life, and die in an unrepentant state, you’re going to Hell.”</p>

<p>Phelps-Roper said the group decided to protest at Duke in part because of material on the University’s website.</p>

<p>“Duke University receives tax dollars, and they’re using those tax dollars in part to fund the religion of the Sodomites,” Phelps-Roper said. “They’ve got all kinds of homosexual stuff going on at Duke University, it’s all over the website.”</p>

<p>The group plans to picket on Main Street near East Campus during the afternoon May 6 before protesting two weekend performances of the play The Laramie Project at the Durham School of the Arts. The play is based on interviews conducted in Laramie, Wyo., shortly after Shepard was murdered in an anti-gay hate crime. It includes a character who portrays Phelps.</p>

<p>The group also plans to protest at seven Durham churches, including St. Paul Lutheran Church, Aldersgate United Methodist Church, First Presbyterian Church, First Baptist Church, St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, Our Savior Lutheran Church and Immaculate Conception Catholic Church.</p>

<p>Phelps-Roper said a lawyer from their office sent a letter April 1 to Duke University Police Department Chief Clarence Birkhead notifying him of their plans to protest.</p>

<p>Birkhead and DUPD were not aware of the group’s intentions, said Leanora Minai, senior public relations specialist for DUPD. Any picketing or protesting directly on campus has to be approved by the University administration, she added.</p>

<p>“If it’s sanctioned it has to go through the University channels, in terms of getting sanctioned permission,” she said. “We need to know a little more but we’re going to monitor the situation… this is the first we’ve heard about it. Like any special event, we will do what is appropriate.”</p>

<p>When questioned about the group’s use of the term ■■■, Phelps-Roper said it was not offensive.</p>

<p>“They are not gay. So we’re not going to call them gay. ■■■ is really kind of eloquent Bible metaphor,” she said. “Natural wood faggots fuel nature’s fire, just like these Sodomites, or fags, fuel the wrath of God—they fuel the fires of Hell.”</p>

<p>Phelps-Roper said the acceptance of homosexuality is a major problem for young people.</p>

<p>“This filthy manner of life, if our nation makes it an innocent alternate lifestyle, we are a doomed nation,” she said. “Thank God for 9/11, thank God for the tsunami, thank God for [Hurricane] Ivan, thank God for [Hurricane] Charley.”</p>

<p>Groups under Phelps’ guidance have picketed at sites across the country, including other schools such as Brown University and Ohio State University, but they have also failed to show at other locations where they had planned protests.</p>

<p>Either way, AQUADuke President Brian West said his organization was going to coordinate a counter-protest with other campus and local groups to plan a “wide-range response.”</p>

<p>“I’ve already received a lot of e-mails both from ministers and the local community showing solidarity with the Gay Straight Alliance at DSA and here,” he said. “[The picketing] fosters a culture of hate and essentially I think that if students are uncomfortable at Duke it only makes it more uncomfortable for them.</p>

<p>I think that Rev. Phelps crosses the line in a lot of ways. It’s not just he’s expressing a political view, he’s actually in some ways making an implicit threat that not only do [lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people] not have a right to exist, essentially if they die that’s a divinely good thing.”</p>

<p>West added that the date of the scheduled protesting, during Friday of exam week, made it an “especially terrible time,” but added that any sort of response would still be strong.</p>

<p>“We will be there when he comes,” he said. “We’re going to try to avoid being, in general, very aggressive or sort of violent in our protesting. It’s more about showing solidarity, trying to express our viewpoint that hate is not okay.”</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.chronicle.duke.edu/vnews/display.v/ART/2005/04/13/425cf39c17074[/url]”>http://www.chronicle.duke.edu/vnews/display.v/ART/2005/04/13/425cf39c17074&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>What complete nut-bags, I don’t see how they have any support whatsoever.</p>

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<p>god, I was shocked when I read this in the chronicle today. It’s up to us to organize a forceful, peaceful counter-protest. </p>

<p>I mean, there’s feeling uncomfortable about homosexuality…and then there is phelps. It’s disturbing these people exist in the world.</p>

<p>and “■■■ is really kind of an eloquent Bible metaphor”? What the hell are they on?</p>

<p>between that article and the one about the junior here getting sued 3 million dollars for downloading music (rumor has it he only had about 300 files), it was quite a day for journalism.</p>

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<p>

um…what?</p>

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<p>Hate the SIN, NOT the SINNER.</p>

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<p>Phelps has a number of web sites, such as GodHatesAmerica.com. (I found this to be a bit surprising – seems somebody like him would have a random problem with the Internet and modern technology).</p>

<p>My girlfriend lives in Topeka, and when I visited her, we could see the protestors on the streets – they picket a number of churches regularly for doing horrible things like putting up crosses for dead American soldiers in Iraq.</p>

<p>I think anybody across the board of perspectives on homosexuality can look at Fred Phelps and conclude that he is actively opposing the progress of human compassion.</p>

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<p>According to an article in the Herald Sun, this has nothing at all to do with Duke. The protest itself is against a performance of a play scheduled to be performed by some high school kids at the Durham School of the Arts. This group has protested the same play at some 100 locations. My guess is that they chose the Duke campus location for a protest in an attempt to get a lot of hype from the media!
Unfortunately, this protest (if it happens) will be nothing but a senseless distraction for the Duke students who will be taking finals. Due to the nature of the protest, it will indeed attract some media attention. </p>

<p>From the Herald Sun:</p>

<p>"DURHAM – A group of anti-gay activists from a Kansas church plans to descend on Durham on May 6 and 7 for protests and picketing. </p>

<p>The group’s target? A play put on by high school students at the Durham School of the Arts. </p>

<p>The Rev. Fred Phelps, leader of Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, travels across the country to protest performances of “The Laramie Project.” The play focuses on a Wyoming town’s reaction to the death of Matthew Shepard, a 21-year-old gay man beaten to death there. </p>

<p>Phelps and his supporters picketed at Shepard’s 1998 funeral, declaring their disgust of his homosexual lifestyle. </p>

<p>In an interview with The Herald-Sun, Phelps said his group has protested “The Laramie Project” play at nearly 100 locations across the nation. "</p>

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<p>Those quotes are so outrageous, so lunatic that it seems like satire (like something out of a John Waters movie). If only it was funny. Anyway, I think those vicious, pious morons should generate a lot of sympathy and support for the LGBT community.</p>

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<p>This sounds like an Onion article lol</p>

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<p>Luckily its going to be off campus (Main and 15th street). Seems like they were coming to Durham anyway to protest the play that’s being put on and just looked for an excuse to protest Duke as well.</p>

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<p>this is what happens when u dont go to college and dont have a job.</p>

<p>what a bunch of bored losers.</p>

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<p>losers is indeed an accurate depiction</p>

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<p>Phelps lives and protests very close to my hometown of Lawrence, KS. To answer any questions anyone has about him or his relation to Duke; he is crazy and has no affiliation with Duke or anyone other than his cultish church in Topeka for that matter. He has no stable advocacy other than he “hates fags” and wants to make outlandish statements that anger as many people as possible. Honestly, people in Kansas have found that it is much more effective to simply ignore him (but maybe thats because he does stuff almost every week here).</p>

<p>Whats even more disturbing is the fact that he brings young kids with him to hold signs (I’m talking children ages anywhere 4 and up). Don’t throw things at them; don’t do anything that could be considered illegal or agressive in anyway - no matter how much they deserve it. Phelps sends all of his kids and some church members to law school for legal protection and they have constantly running video cameras at their protests to capture any actions they can go to court over.</p>

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<p>haha i bet phelps is such a homophobe because he is secretly gay. like that weird guy’s dad in american beauty. what a loser.</p>