The "approved" version. . .

“THE LARAMIE PROJECT” Undermines Parental Rights, Leads Students to Radical Groups

What the Acton Beacon newspaper was willing to print.

The following is the watered-down version that the paper finally printed. But the author was lucky to get it in at all; the left-wing editor was extremely hostile and condescending - all too common these days when it comes to this kind of subject matter.

‘Laramie’ undermines parental rights
The Acton Beacon
Wed Oct 24, 2007
(Link to article on newspaper website)

Acton, Mass. - Note from the author: The Beacon will not run direct quotes we provided from our high school play, “The Laramie Project,” because they’re too obscene. Other factual information, such as subjects covered by a Boston homosexual newspaper, has been removed from this column. If our newspaper can’t print these raw facts about this play, how can our high school serve it up to our teenagers and community?

“The Laramie Project” is Acton-Boxborough Regional High School’s fall play, running in early November. The school cautions it’s “for age 13 and above.” But it’s actually unsuitable for any audience.

The play’s foul language is just one problem. It is also horribly violent, promotes homosexuality as normal, and undermines many parents’ values and authority. Yet the director told me that it has literary merit worth six months of production time.

“The Laramie Project” exploits the savage 1998 murder of homosexual college student Matthew Shepard in Laramie, Wyo., for radical political ends. A compilation of interviews with Laramie residents, it is lacking as drama — but effective as propaganda promoting the acceptance of homosexuality. The play blames the murder on those holding traditional values. (A report from ABC News “20/20” in 2004 showed the killers were actually drug-using thugs intent on robbery.)

The script, and accompanying handouts given to ABRHS drama students, make the play’s agenda crystal clear: 1) normalize homosexuality in the minds of children and the community; 2) lead children to homosexual advocacy groups (i.e. recruitment); and 3) promote “hate crimes” legislation (and local vigilante activities) to stomp out so-called “hatred.”

The play manipulates the audience’s emotions through vile language, violence, and blatant misrepresentations of Christians.

We hear graphic details of the terrible murder over and over: Matthew begged for his life as he lay tied to the fence posts, while the enraged murderer continued to pistol-whip him mercilessly about the head. Tears streamed through the caked blood on Matthew’s cheeks. He lingered for days in the hospital, as his distraught parents awaited his certain death.

In one handout, students learn what a scary place Focus on the Family is (Dr. James Dobson’s Christian, pro-family organization): One of the playwrights tells how fearfulshe wasbefore, during, and after her visit there. In the play itself, the ranting Fred Phelps is dishonestly set up to represent the (false) “Christian message” that “God hates fags.”

The HBO teacher’s guide makes the play’s goal clear: “Students may even come to view their most basic values — values that have been a part of their families and communities for generations — in a new light.”

The effect of the raw language, violence, and anti-Christian insinuations is to make the audience suspect, fear, and even hate traditional, conservative Christians in their community — since they carry the “seeds of hate” the drama director claims are present in Acton-Boxborough. The play, she has said, is a “mirror” of our community, and a similar murder could happen here! But the reality is that no “hate crimes” have been recorded in our towns since the FBI started keeping track in 1995.

Lavender wristbands (handed out to the ABRHS troupe) read “ERASE HATE” on one side, and MatthewShepard.org on the other. This site tells students wanting to “Make a Difference” to “Come Out.” The site’s new teen-friendly space, “Matthew’s Place,” even highlights “Coming out as Transgender.”

Through this site, “The Laramie Project” links students directly to radical homosexual organizations: 1) PFLAG, which recently held a conference in Worcester (TranscendingBoundaries.org) with workshops on “transgender children,” “swinging” parties, sadomasochism, and polyamory (multiple sex partners); 2) Human Rights Campaign’s “Coming Out” page (HRC.org/comingout); 3) GLSEN, which gave teens the pornographic “Little Black Book” (on sexual acts, Boston’s “gay” bars) at their 2005 Boston conference and promotes transgenderism; 4) BAGLY.org (Boston Alliance of Gay Lesbian Bisexual and Transgender Youth), which puts on the queer/transgender prom at Boston City Hall every May, and is led by a “male-to-female transsexual.”

A-B Superintendent Bill Ryan gave an interview to the radical homosexual paper Bay Windows (which ran a story about the Pope’s genitalia), saying he’s sure the play “will be well-received by the community,” and that the play is “really hopeful.” (Bay Windows recently called a marriage amendment rally a “hatefest” — clearly sharing the mindset of our school personnel who wish to beat down parents holding traditional values.)

The pro-homosexual activists in our high school want to silence any principled opposition to homosexuality. Forget about parents’ rights. And don’t mention the potential dangers of the homosexual lifestyle.

What good will come from this production? ABRHS Principal, Steve Donovan, was unable to answer that question in a meeting last summer.

This “R-rated” play is dishonest, vulgar, violent, politically loaded and divisive. It has no place in a taxpayer-funded school.
For more information: www.MassResistance.org, “The Laramie Project.”

Amy Contrada is an Acton resident and parent, and a researcher for the Parents’ Rights Coalition/MassResistance.