October 18, 2008
Updates: 10/20/08

By Wayne Fuller

The “God Hates Fags” group of Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, KS, will be picketing Oklahoma City University’s production of Moisés Kaufman’s play The Laramie Project on Friday, October 24, 2008, from 7:15 pm to 8:00 pm.

The Laramie Project is based on the aftermath of Matthew Wayne Shepard’s murder. Shepard, a gay Wyoming college student, was killed ten years ago at the age of twenty-one during a violent gay hate crime.

OCU's LGBT group Spectrum will be holding a counter demonstration. Gossip Boy columist Bret Gaither, will be one of the featured speakers participating in the peaceful action against the Westboro group. Anyone wanting to join Spectrum's protest is asked not to confront the WBC members  

Matthew Shepard
Photo By Gina Van Hoof

When asked about the protest, Oklahoma City Police Department spokesperson Sgt. Paco Balderrama said, “Our department has experience with the Westboro people and we will have officers on the scene to assist OCU officers if needed. We do not anticipate any problems during the protest, as previous actions have been peaceful. We encourage the protestors and any counter-demonstrators to behave in a civil manner. Westboro will not be allowed in the theater or can they disrupt the play. They will have a restricted and limited protest area determined by campus police and our department.”

A call to Shirley Phelps-Roper of the Westboro Baptist Church has not been returned.

Westboro began their opposition to the “homosexual lifestyle of soul-daming, nation-destroying filth” in June 1991 and gained national exposure during a protest at Matthew Shepard’s funeral in 1998. Westboro head Fred Phelps, age 79, who founded the Calvinist-based baptist church in 1955, has been accused by sons Mark and Nate of physical abuse and cult-like behavior.  Phelps’ is portrayed negatively in The Laramie Project and typically protests at any production the church finds out about.

A public statement by the church says, “This is the 10th anniversary of little dumbass Matthew Sheperd [sic] getting slaughtered by his fellow meth-heads. Look at what this country's doing, you bunch of freaks have gone stark raving mad. You have substituted that really god-awful pail of pig slop called the Laramie Project for just simply reading and obeying the Commandments of God.”

The production will be presented by the Black Box Theatre at the Wanda L. Bass Music Center on the OCU campus located at 2501 N. Blackwelder in Oklahoma City. The play, which ran last week too, will run October 23^rd to 26^th. For tickets to the production call (405) 208-5227.  

Matthew Shepard Murderer Rumored To Be Coming To Oklahoma Facility

October 18, 2008

By Wayne Fuller

Russell Arthur Anderson and Aaron James McKinney are currently serving life sentences at the Wyoming State Penitentiary South Facility in Rawlins, WY for the October 1998 slaying of gay University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard.

                       

Gossip Boy is investigating information we’ve uncovered from a source we have with the Oklahoma Department of Corrections, that Russell Anderson may be transferred to the North Fork Correctional Facility in Sayre, Oklahoma in early 2009 due to being reclassified from high to medium security. North Fork is a private prison owned by the Corrections Corporation of America and currently houses medium security inmates from Wyoming and other areas. Officials in Wyoming and at North Fork are declining any comment about the possible move due to “security issues and institution policies”.

The source, who was able to only gather limited information for us, said that if Anderson is not transferred to Sayre, then he will likely be moved in 2010 to a medium security facility being built near Torrington, WY.  

In a phone call from Gossip Boy to Wyoming State Penitentiary, Warden Eddie Wilson refused to discuss the incarceration histories of the pair convicted of murdering Shepard or allow any staff member to do so. An aide to the prison overseer has barred written correspondence from us to Anderson and McKinney.

This publication talked to Judy Shepard’s office in Casper, Wyoming, and to the Matthew Shepard Foundation office in Denver, Colorado, to gather additional information for this report. They were unaware of any security re-classification or facility change, but will be looking into it.    

Gossip Boy will be following this story closely and will keep our readers updated.