Subject: First-Hand Report on Confrontation at Play in Louisville Aug. 7
From: [email-masked]
Date: Sun, 8 Aug 1999 11:29:49 EDT

We ("we" meaning Louisville, Central Kentucky, and Columbus Anti-Racist
Action) got together around 6:20 pm [August 7, 1999] in front of Artswatch, 
the building where the play "Corpus Christi" is being performed. There were about
fifteen members of Anti-Racist Action present. There are only two opponents
there at the time -- one Catholic, one fundamentalist Christian, both
praying the rosary (?!?).

A couple of our folks walked down the block to Walgreen's to buy some cheap
posterboard. We made a few funny signs to annoy the fundamentalists with
and stood right next to them on the sidewalk so that when their cronies
showed up they would have no room to stand.

As patrons of Artswatch started showing up to claim their reservations, a
car pulled up in front with two loudly homophobic men inside. We videotaped
their faces and license plate numbers. They parked nearby and returned to
harangue the Artswatch patrons and ARA members with ever-so-inventive
taunts of "Faggots!"

A few minutes later, some more unorganized homophobes showed up. They all
looked like they may have been in town for the free Lynyrd Skynrd concert
in downtown Louisville that night (no, I'm not kidding). They joined the
two other loudmouths across the street and basically just sat there doing
nothing except hollering occasionally. They looked like potential Klan
recruits, but they gave no indication that they were actually in any Klan
organization. One of them did say that he agreed with the Klan
"politically," whatever that means.

So at this point we have the organized Christian demonstrators which are
praying and singing constantly on the same side of the street as Artswatch.
We also have the unorganized loudmouth homophobes who are just lounging
around on the other side of the street looking red-faced and hateful. ARA
is all over the place -- some are standing near or among the organized
Christians, some cross the street and stand in front of the unorganized
homophobes, others are keeping an eye on the scene from a nearby street
corner.

At this point the police show up and block off a side street with their
cars. They stand around for a long time and try to figure out what's going
on. Eventually they move across the street to stand in front of ARA people
with signs who are standing in front of the loudmouth homophobes. The
police discuss the possibility of separating all the demonstrators into
their own areas -- moving ARA away from the loudmouths and over to the
Christians, perhaps. Our proposed solution was to have all the anti-gay
protesters, organized and unorganized alike, on the opposite side of the
street while ARA stood in front of Artswatch. Of course the cops didn't
listen to us.

It remained this way for about 30-45 minutes. Finally the organized
Christian demonstrators packed up and left. The unorganized loudmouths
called out "Don't leave! Don't leave!" Then something very interesting
happened. A police officer pulled aside one of the larger, louder
homophobes and said a few words which we couldn't hear. Then the
unorganized homophobes left. Then the police left. And ARA was standing
outside of Artswatch alone. It was clear that the police had made some type
of deal with the opposition, perhaps something along the lines of "Look,
we're about to leave, so if you guys leave first then we'll leave and you
can come back and harass Artswatch and ARA to your heart's content."

We had won this first round by making sure that "Corpus Christi" was not
disrupted and that everybody who wanted to get in to see the play was able
to do so. We decided to wait around until the play ended so we could walk
people to their cars and ensure that the cast and crew were safe.

While we were waiting -- surprise! surprise! -- five Klansmen from Indiana
showed up, wearing street clothing instead of their usual sheets and hoods.
They stood toe to toe with us on the sidewalk, begging to be allowed to
distribute their grammatically mangled "literature" (can't the Klan afford
a dictionary or spell-checker?).

At that very moment -- surprise again!! -- the police showed up and
immediately arrested an ARA member for wearing a bandanna over his nose and
mouth. (Louisville has a mask law ordinance on the books; it wasn't
enforced against the Klan when they held a rally here in 1996, but of
course it is vigorously enforced against groups like ARA.) The Klan boys
walked away, muttering something revealing like "That's what happens when
you go up against the Klan -- you get arrested!" They retreated to their
vehicles at a nearby parking lot.

The police hung around for quite some time to question us and do a little
important standing-around. Finally we saw the Klan boys drive by in their
trucks with out-of-state plates. And then the police left too. Minutes
later, we saw the Klan people go into a nearby building and peer at us from
a second-story window. It was an obvious repeat of the previous situation
where the opponents left, then the police left, then the opponents showed
up again. Hmmm ...

Finally the play ended. Donations were taken for bail money. The cast and
crew were able to leave and lock up safely, and when the Artswatch building
was empty, we decided to call it a night and start trying to free our
jailed comrade. $1500 full cash bond, anybody want to donate?

Anti-Racist Action
PO Box 4964
Louisville KY 40204-0964
[email-masked]
http://louara.cjb.net
Call Anti-Racist Action toll free:
(888) 392-4832, extension 568-478-4553 (LOUISVILLE)