Larry Cirignano reaches out to the gays

Activists from the anti-gay group MassResistance rallied their supporters last month to protest Acton-Boxborough Regional High School's upcoming production of The Laramie Project, a play about the murder of Matthew Shepard, but their actions had an unintended consequence: They attracted the attention of Fred Phelps and his anti-gay Westboro Baptist Church. Phelps announced that he and his followers would bring their message that "God hates fags" to the Nov. 3 performance of the play, and while they are in town they will spend the next day protesting at three Boston churches, Park Street Church, the Cathedral of the Holy Cross and Trinity Church.

News of Phelps's protest prompted former Catholic Citizenship president Larry Cirignano, who was recently acquitted of assault and battery charges (see "http://www.baywindows.com/index.php?ch=news&sc=glbt&sc2=&sc3=&id=51716"), to reach out to gay activist Tom Lang of the group KnowThyNeighbor to try to draft a joint letter from LGBT groups, MassResistance and religious conservatives asking Phelps not to come to Massachusetts. Lang told Bay Windows that he will not support such a letter, and he said other LGBT activists to whom he has spoken have had a similar response to Cirignano's request.

Cirignano, who was unaware of Lang's refusal to participate at the time of the interview, said at present he is unsure whether the letter will go forward. He said he was informed by both Lang and MassResistance founder Brian Camenker about Phelps's penchant for announcing protests and then failing to appear. He said Camenker told him he worries about giving Phelps undue publicity.

"[Camenker] doesn't want to be associated with Fred anymore than any of the rest of us do. But he raises the question, do we help him by publicizing him?" said Cirignano.

Cirignano said the goal of the statement would be to send a message that neither LGBT activists nor those who oppose homosexuality support Phelps's hateful rhetoric.

"We certainly wanted to make a statement that he's not welcome and we didn't want to participate in anything like that. Tom seemed receptive and I think we should all agree that that should have no place here," said
Cirignano.

Lang said that he declined to participate in the joint letter because he believes that while Phelps may trump Cirignano, Camenker and other anti-gay activists in terms of extreme rhetoric, they all promote the same core message.

"Phelps is just different packaging for the same message," said Lang. "If I'm evil, if I'm a sinner, if I'm sex outside marriage ... it's all the same thing."

He said he e-mailed friends in the LGBT community about Cirignano's offer of writing a joint statement, and they agreed that members of the LGBT community should not participate.

Lang said he suspects Cirignano and MassResistance have suddenly become motivated to take a stand against Phelps, who has protested before in Massachusetts, because this time his targets include the Acton production of The Laramie Project, which features among its cast the daughter of MassResistance activist Amy Contrada; the Cathedral of the Holy Cross, the church of Archbishop Sean O'Malley, a key ally of Cirignano's during the failed campaign to ban same-sex marriage; and Park Street Church, a conservative evangelical church. Lang said MassResistance and its anti-gay supporters are responsible for attracting Phelps to Boston, and they should be the ones to deal with him.

"There will be no alliance between the LGBT community and the Catholics and the Brian Camenkers to fight a common foe that they let out of hell," said Lang, laughing. "They're responsible for this."