Nov 12, 2007 6:05 AM GMT
I was just talking to my parents on the phone tonight, and apparently my high school in my home town of Acton, MA put on a production of "The Laramie Project", and was one of the first to put on the play -- it just opened. I'm really actually quite impressed, my little suburb of Massachusetts making the news for putting on this play that a lot of other schools won't.
Both of my parents surprised me with their vigor for the play. "It was really incredible," my Dad said. "It was amazingly moving."
"It could have been a Broadway production," said my Mom, "You'd never have believed the performers were high school students."
And apparently Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church went to Acton, MA and picketed outside my old Catholic church (my mother said, "They had a bunch of signs about how our pastor was a whore, or something. Strange bunch of people.") And they picketed my old high school for putting on the play.
I was stunned when my parents told me. Fred Phelps and his infamous gang in my tiny little suburban hometown! My mother said, "I think it's so sad that there are people like them who have such hateful beliefs."
"Are you kidding?" I said, "That's so exciting! The WBC in Acton? I wish I'd been there!! I would have gotten photos with them!"
My parents didn't really know who they were so I explained -- they picketed Shepard's funeral in the first place, just lost this significant court battle, etc.
I just couldn't believe it. The director of the high school theater group now is a woman who was the mother of one of the kids in my high school class, perhaps the only kid I knew in a class of 300+ kids who was openly gay (and was mercilessly picked on for it, which I feel awful about now -- wish I'd done something to stop it) and apparently she's really taking the school in a rather progressive direction.
Still! Fred Phelps! In my little hometown!
I was tickled pink.
Both of my parents surprised me with their vigor for the play. "It was really incredible," my Dad said. "It was amazingly moving."
"It could have been a Broadway production," said my Mom, "You'd never have believed the performers were high school students."
And apparently Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church went to Acton, MA and picketed outside my old Catholic church (my mother said, "They had a bunch of signs about how our pastor was a whore, or something. Strange bunch of people.") And they picketed my old high school for putting on the play.
I was stunned when my parents told me. Fred Phelps and his infamous gang in my tiny little suburban hometown! My mother said, "I think it's so sad that there are people like them who have such hateful beliefs."
"Are you kidding?" I said, "That's so exciting! The WBC in Acton? I wish I'd been there!! I would have gotten photos with them!"
My parents didn't really know who they were so I explained -- they picketed Shepard's funeral in the first place, just lost this significant court battle, etc.
I just couldn't believe it. The director of the high school theater group now is a woman who was the mother of one of the kids in my high school class, perhaps the only kid I knew in a class of 300+ kids who was openly gay (and was mercilessly picked on for it, which I feel awful about now -- wish I'd done something to stop it) and apparently she's really taking the school in a rather progressive direction.
Still! Fred Phelps! In my little hometown!
I was tickled pink.
