Community discusses 'Laramie Project' at panel

Several years ago, doctoral candidate Sean McLennan would have been happy with the "live and let live" attitude toward gays, lesbians and bisexuals. Now, he sees it as segregation.\nSenior Jada Barbry agrees that despite the compassion gays and lesbians receive from the Bloomington community, many straight people distance themselves from homosexuals.\n"We probably have a lot of issues dealing with … sexual orientation in this town," she said. "There's still a lot of the idea of 'live and let live, as long as you don't come anywhere near me.'"\nMcLennan and Barbry explained what it's like to live in Bloomington as homosexuals and reflected upon the 1998 murder of Matthew Shepard during a panel discussion after Saturday's performance of "The Laramie Project" in the Wells-Metz Theatre.\nThe five-person panel attracted an audience of 70 members, who ranged from teenagers to senior citizens. Although some came only for the panel, most of the audience had remained at the theater after watching the performance. With the ongoing debate over gay marriage and a protest of the play planned for April 1 through April 3, the forum received considerable interest.\n"I was surprised that IU was doing the play," Barbry said. "It shocked me. I thought it was a little controversial."\nTom Shafer, an employee of the Department of Theatre and Drama, had an opposite reaction.\n"When we selected the play, we thought it was high-time we did do it," he said. "If we had any kind of conversation, it was, 'Why did we wait so long?'"\nMoisés Kaufman created "The Laramie Project" after the 1998 murder of Matthew Shepard, a gay student at Laramie's University of Wyoming. Kaufman and his colleagues captured the town's reaction by interviewing 200 Laramie citizens a year after the murder.\nBarbry said she remembers her own reaction to Shepard's murder. Having just begun college, she hadn't found the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender community until she attended IU's candlelight vigil.\n"All of a sudden, there were all of these people gathered together to mourn, to show each other they felt scared and to say, 'Could this happen here?'" she said. "I think what we came up with was, 'Yes, it could happen here.'"\nIt's six years later, but harassment still exists on campus. Panelist Bill Shipton, a member of the GLBT Anti-Harassment Team, said the team receives 60 to 120 harassment reports each year. \nDespite the harassment incidents, McLennan said he thinks Bloomington is a good place for homosexuals to live, at least for him.\n"I'm also very aware of the fact that it helps that I'm a 6-foot 5-inch blond male," he said, causing the audience to laugh. "That makes it a lot easier."\nMcLennan sports a gay-pride button on his bag and a rainbow sticker on his car. These items sometimes make him more conscious of his sexuality.\n"When I'm walking through a locker room with my bag, I'm very aware of the fact that I have that bag," he said. "It's a very vulnerable place to be. I'm also very aware of my rainbow sticker when I'm driving through Martinsville. It's still always there at the back of your head."\nBarbry's goal is to be out as much as possible.\n"If we hide, that's where we make it easier for people to commit violence against us," she said. "If we run, they're going to chase after us. If we stand strong, stand up, stand for something, then it'll be hard to break it up and fall down."\nPastor Fred Phelps from Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kan., opposes homosexuals and created www.godhatesfags.com and protested at Shepard's funeral, as depicted in the play. Shipton received a fax from Phelps about IU's production of "The Laramie Project," claiming protests are planned for April 1 through April 3, but Shipton said he has no idea whether they are going to happen.\nPanelist Rev. Mary Ann Macklin, co-minister of the Bloomington Unitarian-Universalist Church, said she thinks the best way to combat opposition is not to picket but to share stories.\n"Some of the best work I've seen … is people getting together not knowing where they stand on the issue but telling their story about how they arrived there," she said. "There's a time to take a stand … but there's also a time to hear each other's stories wherever we're from."\nAlthough Macklin calls herself a "reluctant radical," she refuses to compromise herself. \n"I will continue to walk in my truth," Macklin said. "What can I do -- what can any of us do -- but walk in our truth?"\n-- Contact staff writer Ashley Rhodebeck at arhodebe@indiana.edu.