Exclusive Interview with QueerToday.com Below:
1. Hi Claudia! Could you tell the readers of QueerToday.com what your participation in the Laramie Project has been like?
Being a part of Laramie Project is great because it’s such an important piece of theater. A lot of us in the cast and crew have been working together for a while so there’s this support we all give to each other.
2. What lesson/s do you think are important for people to come away with after they see the play?
The most obvious message is acceptance, but people also need to understand that Matthew Shepard’s murder was not just a one time kind of thing, but it can happen anywhere.
3. What is it like for you as a young woman of color in your community, school, and home?
It doesn’t really affect me that much. I mean when I was younger some immature kids would make a comment or two about my eyes or something, but now it’s not really a big deal because there are a lot of Asians in my town.
4. What is it like for you to be supportive of gay rights but have an anti-gay activist parent?
It’s difficult because we clash horribly. It’s really stressful because there’s always an argument going on.
5. What has your brother’s experience been like?
He went off to college when my mom was starting up with her activist stuff so he hasn’t had to live for extended periods of time lately.
6. Do you have any advice for young LGBT people and/or their allies?
Life can be difficult, to the point where you just want to give up on it, but if you find strength in yourself and support in your friends and don’t let anything hold you back, things will eventually fall into place.
7. What inspired you to become interested in the rights of oppressed communities, and animal rights, etc.? Who are some leaders (alive or dead) you look up to ?
Well I love animals and have grown up with them so the thought of killing them or torturing them tears me up. It’s disgusting. As far as oppressed communities go, I know what it’s like to be prevented from being who you are. It’s painful and psychologically unhealthy. People shouldn’t have to go through that.
8. Do you identify as LGB or T?
I am a lesbian, which my mom still does not get. She just says that I am confused. I realized in around eighth grade, but I was in denial for quite some time because I was scared due to my mother constantly saying that homosexuality is wrong. How can it ever be wrong to love though? That’s what I’d like to know.
Dealing with anti-gay bigotry within the family is tough enough, but to have your parent be a cruisader must be truly miserable. But maybe it’s helped make Claudia a stronger person than she otherwise would be. The whole “what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger” thing. Small consolation, but still something.
<
p>
If you’re reading this, all the best to you Claudia! Hang in there and thank you for your honesty and personal integrity! The world needs more people like you!
without a linkie. Good Lord, making me do all the research myself? You have some nerve.
<
p>
The Daily Show: “Mass Hysteria” Nov 3, 2005.
The production of The Laramie Project that she’s in is on the protest schedule of the freak show Westboro Baptist Church (Fred Phelps et al.) :
http://www.godhatesf…
<
p>
I think it’s fantastic that a high school drama club is doing a piece like The Laramie Project. “Break a leg” to all of them.
the phelps cult often fails to follow through and show up for events on their itinerary. it must be hard for them, what with so many soldier’s funerals to dishonor and all.
high school students don’t deserve that.
a jury has found in favor of the father of a dead marine soldier whose funeral the phelpses protested. the fine is still pending, but could be hefty. if they want to keep picketing, looks like fred’ll have to send his kids out selling candy door to door again. that is how he “supported” his family financially when they were children. more here.
…whether or no the Phelpsians show up, the play will get more free advertising that it might have otherwise.
Fred Phelps?
<
p>
That’s some interesting background you found there.
because the republicans let one get away! i thought you guys had cornered the market on hateful anti-gay bigotry. but i guess a slip up from time to time is to be expected.
Phelps also protested the funeral of Al Gore’s father:The contest has symbolic significance because of Mr. Phelps’s reputation. He picketed the funerals of Matthew Shepard, the gay man beaten and left to die in 1998 in Wyoming; Mister Rogers; Sonny Bono; and Al Gore’s father because of what he viewed as their stands on sexual orientation. And the dispute here is being repeated across the country.
<
p>
Incidentally, the wikipedia cite links to some place called ‘Front Page Magazine’. I hadn’t heard of FrontPage Magazine so I clicked on the home page which has titles like “Code Pink Learns from Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week’s Slanderers” and “Schmoozing With Terrorists
…
From Hollywood to the Holy Land, Jihadists reveal their global plans to a Jew.” The site even has a “Jihad watch.” Oooo….
Okay, just because these guys said it doesn’t make it obviously false, right? Right. But I would suggest finding a better source.
Also according to Crooks and Liars Fred Phelps likes Thompson in 2008.
…David Horowitz’s rag.
<
p>
Horowitz has an interesting history. When it was fashionable (and remunerative) to be a left wing radical, in the 1960s aen early 1970s,he was a left wing radical: editor of the lefty mag Ramparts magazine and author of lengthy left wing books.
<
p>
Sometime in the early to mid 1970s, when it was no longer fashionable–or remunerative–to be a left wing radical, he switched sides and became a right wing radical. Then being a right wing radical was becoming far more remunerative.
<
p>
And perhaps Phelps is friends with that homophobe Obama gospel singer?
Phelps’ son, Fred Phelps Jr. was the delegate.
<
p>
Doesn’t really make a difference, though; they’re all complete lunatics.