NEWS 3A
THE UNIVERSITY JAILY KANSAN
MONDAY OCTOBER 13, 2008
ORGANIZATIONS
Student group travels to see 'Laramie Project'
Just two days before the 10th anniversary of Matthew Shepard's murder, Queers and Allies takes in performance in Manhattan
BY JESSE TRIMBLE jtrimble@kansan.com
Seven members of Queers and Allies attended a production of "The Laramie Project" Friday night at the Purple Masque Theater in Manhattan. "The Laramie Project" is a play by Mosiés Kaufman and
the Numbers Tectonic Theater Project and is based on Matthew Shepard's murder. The 10th anniversary of Shepard's death was Sunday.
In 1998, two men beat and murdered Shepard in Laramie, Wyo., where he was a student at the University of Wyoming. Shepard's murderers objected to his homosexuality and the Shepard case drew international attention as one of the first gay hate crimes in the United States.
The play depicts a theater company from New York traveling to Laramie to conduct hundreds of interviews with the residents of the town about Shepard's murder. The company members are also present for the trial and sentencing of the two men accused of Shepard's beating and murder. According to the 2000 census, the town had around 27,000 residents.
Rachel Gadd-Nelson, Kansas City sophomore and Queers and Allies public relations manager, said that the play was similar to the movie "The Laramie Project" that was released in 2002.
"This was an international event," Gadd-Nelson said. "People from everywhere were watching and it opened the eyes of people to
Gadd-Nelson said the play hit home about how an event like this could still easily happen anywhere.
hate crimes and what that meant."
"They put everything together into this play and the movie," Gadd-Nelson said. "It was scripted, but it was also a first-hand account of what was going on at the time from the people of Laramie."
Hahna Curtin, Oconomowoc, Wis., freshman and member of Queers and Allies, said that it was a very emotional and intense performance.
"One of the actresses on stage started crying when she wasn't supposed to," Curtin said. "The guy sitting next to me started crying, too."
Curtin said she barely remembered the actual event in 1998, as she was only eight years old at the time.
Jared Kelly, Salmouth, Mass., freshman and member of Queers and Allies, said although he'd never seen any version of the play before, it was extremely powerful.
"Before seeing this, I felt like I'm gay and people see homosexuality as being so bad and so wrong, but afterwards, I felt really empowered," Kelly said. "Kind of like I'm gay and that's OK."
Rumors swirled that Fred Phelps, the pastor of Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, was supposed to come with a group of parishioners and picket the play, but they never showed up on Friday. Phelps infamously pickeded Shepard's funeral in 1998. Friends of Shepard organized a group of people who wore white robes and wings and surrounded Phelps' protest group to block their message from being heard by people at the funeral.
"That was one of the most powerful parts of the play — just amaz
She said that Phelps was portrayed as a character in the play.
ing," Gadd-Nelson said.
Curtin said that the play's depiction of Phelps was accurate and Phelps' character's lines in the play were what Phelps actually said.
"His desire to picket the actual play and the funeral is incredibly bad taste," Curtin said. "If you have a problem with homosexuality that's one thing, but to picket the funeral of a boy who was killed because he was gay — that's just heartless."
Gadd-Nelson said that since Shepard's murder, his mother, Judy, had become an activist for gay rights. Recently, an interview was conducted with Judy concerning hate crime laws being passed. Gadd-Nelson said it was upsetting to see her say that nothing had been passed concerning hate crime laws. Although Connecticut recently passed the gay marriage law, Gadd-Nelson said something should be done about hate crime laws.
Kelly said that hate crimes were a problem, not only within Kansas, but the nation as a whole.
"I don't think hate crimes occur as much as I initially thought," Kelly said. "But they are most definitely a problem. There should be legislature passed to do something about it. It needs to be dealt with."
For the past two years Queers and Allies have hung up flags around campus for Pride Week, which were then immediately torn down by students. This year the group decided to hang the flags higher, using a 24-foot tall ladder.
Edited by Rachel Burchfield
INTERNATIONAL
ASSOCIATED PRESS
A South Korean woman reads a newspaper reporting the United States removed North Korea from its terrorism blacklist in Seoul, South Korea, on Sunday. North Korea said Sunday it would resume disabling its main nuclear facilities, hours after the United States removed the communist country from a list of states that sponsor terrorism.
North Korea feeds nuclear fears
Country blocks U.N. inspectors, reactivates plutonium plant
BY GEORGE JAHN ASSOCIATED PRESS
VIENNA, Austria — North Korea moved closer to restarting its nuclear arms program Wednesday, barring U.N. inspectors from its main plutonium reprocessing plant and announcing it will reactivate the facility that provided the material for its atomic test blast.
The move fed fears about a resurgent nuclear North Korea, but there also is speculation it might be motivated by negotiating strategy. Pyongyang could use the year needed to restart its sole reprocessing plant to wrest more concessions from the U.S. and others seeking to end the atomic program.
the international attempt to coax the North out of its confrontational isolation — a point addressed Wednesday by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
U. S. diplomats are talking with other nations involved in bargaining with the North at this week's meeting of the U.N. General Assembly.
Still, coming amid reports leader Kim Jong ll suffered a stroke, the nuclear reversal is raising nervousness about a breakdown in
Any move by Pyongyang to restart its nuclear program "would only deepen its isolation." Rice warned. "We strongly urge the North to reconsider these steps and come back immediately into compliance with its obligations" under a disarmament-for-aid agreement reached in six-nation talks.
Hours earlier, the International Atomic Energy Agency announced that North Korean officials "informed the IAEA inspectors that they plan to introduce nuclear material to the reprocessing
plant in one week's time."
The statement from the Vienna-based U.N. agency said Deputy IAEA Director General Olli Heinonen told the IAEA board that after a request from North Korea, his inspectors removed all agency seals and surveillance equipment from the reprocessing plant and its immediate area.
That work "was completed today," Heinonen said, according to the statement.
It also said North Korea barred IAEA inspectors from further access to the Yongbyon nuclear complex.
North Korea had signaled in recent days that it would break out of the disarmament deal, announcing it was making "thorough preparations" to restart Yongbyon.
"What they've done is trouble," said Gregory L. Schulte, the chief U.S. delegate to the IAEA.