While eight members from the anti-gay Westboro Baptist Church picketed outside a Baltimore City school?s play, at least three times as many people showed up to counter-protest.
“I don?t think people like that should go unopposed,” said Erik Davis-Heim, an 18-year-old Maryland Institute College of Art student who held a sign Friday night that read, “There?s no shame in being yourself.”
“Don?t knock it until you try it,” read another sign, held by Xavier Taylor, 18, of Towson.
Thanks to the controversial church?s appearance, shows sold out for the Baltimore School for the Arts? production of “The Laramie Project,” said Donald Hicken, theater department director.
The play was written after college student Matthew Shepard was murdered in Laramie, Wyo., in 1998 for his homosexuality and features Westboro?s founder, the Rev. Fred Phelps, as a character, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.
“I took some of the kids out Friday night to see the protest, because [Westboro] is in the play and some of them found it very inspiring and wanted to commit more to the performance, but some found it troubling,” Hicken said.
The police did a good job of keeping the peace at the hour-long protests Friday and Saturday, said Shirley Phelps-Roper, Fred Phelps? daughterand the Topeka, Kan., church?s spokeswoman.
The father of a Westminster Marine sued Westboro for defamation earlier this year after church members protested at his son?s funeral in March.
The church?s pickets are protected under the First Amendment, Phelps-Roper said.
“You may tell [people] a religious message they don?t like, and you have rights under the law to express the religion,” she said.
If you go
» What: “The Laramie Project”
» When: 7 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and 2 p.m. Saturday
» Where: Baltimore School for the Arts, 712 Cathedral St., Baltimore City
