ONE TOWN'S STRUGGLE WITH GOD, GAYS AND BIGOTRY
Jan. 12, 2005
A small conservative town in Oklahoma confronts the issue of gay
rights as one of its own evokes the wrath of an outside hate group.
Michael Shackelford loves his truck. And he loves Merle Haggard.
Not unusual for an 18-year-old in Sand Springs, Okla. But Michael still
stands out from the crowd -- because he is gay. In the "Buckle of the
Bible Belt,"that's still a big deal. Michael's mother desperately wants
him to change,because she knows if he doesn't, they won't end up in
heaven together. Michael's pastor has made it his mission to "make
Michael see the truth" about homosexuality: that it is a sin and he
must change in order to inherit the Kingdom of God. And Michael's peers
at his high school have been none too kind. They called him ***** and
queer. He avoided going to the bathroom all day long for fear of being
cornered and beaten.
Then Anne Hull of the Washington Post came to town. Her stunning
3-part series on Michael ran during the height of the political season
last fall when the issues of gay marriage and gay rights were on the
front burner. For Michael and his mother, seeing their lives laid out
before them in the Post was therapeutic -- they realized that their
struggles were not unique. Few people in Sand Springs read the
Washington Post, so the series garnered scant attention locally.
It did, however, catch the eye of the Rev. Fred Phelps at
Westboro
Baptist Church in Topeka, Kan. Phelps runs a Web site called
godhatesfags.com. He makes it his business to humiliate gays wherever
he
finds them. He and his group picketed the funeral of Matthew Shepard,
the
gay teen murdered six years ago in Laramie, Wyo. They picketed in San
Francisco during the gay marriage blitz. And now they announced their
intention to picket Michael's church in Sand Springs because his pastor
had failed to cast him from the flock.
Fliers from Phelps began appearing on fax machines all over Sand
Springs. "God hates Michael Shackelford," they read. "God is not
mocked! God Hates Fags & Fag Enablers!" The faxes were like a bomb
being dropped in the middle of town. The community felt under siege.
Fear, anger and apprehension blanketed the town. Suddenly the topic no
one cared to talk about could not be avoided.
What transpired was remarkable and surprising, not least to
Michael
Shackelford. We hope you'll tune in to Nightline tonight to see the
outcome of one town's struggle with God, gays and bigotry.
On a personal note, I want to thank the people of Sand Springs
for
their warmth and hospitality during the four days I was there with Anne
Hull, photographer Ron Ladd, and soundman Ken Collins. As a coastal
blue-stater, I can report that the cultural divide we hear about so
much
these days is alive and well. People in Sand Springs speak about their
personal relationship with God with an ease and lack of
self-consciousness that is uncommon on the coasts. And they are
justifiably suspicious that people like me will portray them as
caricatures and stereotypes.
But when you get down to addressing the issues that matter --
family and community and basic human decency -- the differences fade,
connections are made, and trust evolves. And you discover that we are
one people after all.
Dan Morris & The Nightline Staff
Producer
Washington Bureau
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