Staff reports
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NEWBURYPORT — If the notorious anti-gay group Westboro Baptist Church thought they would find a sympathetic ear in Newburyport last night, they clearly picked the wrong city.
A protest by the Kansas-based hate group of a production of "The Laramie Project" at the Firehouse Center for the Arts failed to materialize yesterday, but that didn't stop hundreds of young people from gathering in Market Landing Park in support of the play.
"The Laramie Project" depicts the aftermath of a well-publicized 1998 murder of gay University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard in Laramie, Wyo., a murder that has been labled as a hate crime.
Producers of "The Laramie Project" received a flier from the Westboro Baptist Church alerting them of the group's plans last night in Newburyport. In the release, the group claims that by showing the play, Newburyport is enabling gays. The release contained derogative references to gays and blasted Newburyport for allowing "The Laramie Project" to be shown here.
But the Westboro Baptist Church would have been swamped last night in a sea of pro-gay rights signs, many making fun of the church's motto, "God hates fags."
There were placards with slogans like "God hates figs," "God hates signs," "God loves everyone — even penguins."
Nick Cammarata, A Newburyport High School student, said most of the demonstrators found out about the anti-protest on Facebook and Twitter earlier in the day.
Cammarata, who was holding a sign that said "I think everyone here is cute," said he learned about the demonstration around noon.
By 7 p.m., he was part of a swarm of high-spirited young people, who cheered wildly when a group appeared on the second-floor Firehouse balcony and waved a sign that said "Thank God for Matthew."
Jesse Taylor, 22, organized the anti-protest after learning of the Westboro Baptist Church's plans on Thursday night. Taylor, who recently graduated from Smith College, said a class on nonviolent protest resonated with her.
"I was just kind of thrown into this," she said. "I just wanted to do something."
Taylor started a Facebook page organizing the "anti-protest" at 6:30 Thursday night. By yesterday afternoon, more than 150 people had pledged to attend. Although many of them blended in with the gathering crowd of spectators for the evening's waterfront concert, there were at least 250 young people in the park by 7 p.m.
Taylor said she expected a lot of them to be young people who are connected on Facebook, including friends of hers from across the state, but she expected word of mouth would bring others, as well.
She said the response has been intense.
"People are grateful for the chance to show that we won't put up with this kind of hatred in this town," she said.
Their plan was to not provoke the Westboro members, but to drown them out with positive messages. Taylor said she had been told that the Westboro group provokes violent retribution for the opportunity to sue and make money from their attackers.
The Topeka, Kan.-based Westboro Baptist Church has had an active couple of weeks, protesting at Comic-Con, a comic book convention, in San Diego last week, where convention-goers dressed as superheroes, robots and other characters mocked the three Westboro members, who had American flags wrapped around their waists.
Last week, members of the group also protested at pop star Justin Bieber's concert in Kansas City, saying the 16-year-old teaches people to "sin and rebel against God's commandments."
