Well, I myself am not a UVA (University of Virginia) student, I thought I'd forward my friend's plea out to the feminist world.
UVA is putting on a production of The Laramie Project tonight (11/14/08) at 6:30 in the chapel, and apparently Fred Phelps and his "church" are coming to protest it. They plan on standing in the back of the chapel and disrupting the presentation by creating a ruckus.
UVA students are putting out calls for help in the Charlottesville area and anyone who is willing to make the trip to physically block the WBC from entering the chapel.
So if you're in central or western Virginia, please help out the students! As a Virginia Tech student, I remember all too well when the WBC wanted to come and disrupt our campus and the funerals of those who died nearly two years ago. I will not be there due to an exam, but several of my friends will be.
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I'm really not certain about this, but since they plan on protesting inside of the chapel in order to disrupt the presentation can't they be charged with disorderly conduct? In alot of cases that is applicable if it's a school function, or if there's a semi-reasonable chance that violence or more disruption could occur.
Oh goodness, those idiots came to protest my highschool when we did the Laramie Project. They had to re-route our bus drop off, and blocked the front exit of the school. Why? Because they want you to start a fight so they can sue you. The best thing you can do is ignore them.
Get a couple of large, intimidating athletes to block them, and a couple of small, scary debating debating types as well. :D
Although the performance is probably underway by now, I have a suggestion for future shows: Ask the campus/community to turn out in numbers enough to (peacefully) pack the chapel so there's no room to let them in. Fire codes, you know...can't let more than a certain number of people in the room. Of course, that might mean that you have to turn away people who genuinely want to see the play. The upside to this, if it happens, is that you have a great reason to put on an encore production, and you've raised even more awareness, which is really the whole point anyway.
Maybe I'm just being overly optimistic. I do agree that you can probably have the police kick them out for interrupting the production. It's worth checking with campus police anyway.
Wish I could be there...I'm a recent VT alum myself, now in California, so unfortunately I can't make it. But being a Hokie, I'm interested in hearing how this turns out. I remember how supportive UVA was of us after April 16th and it pisses me off to see them (or anyone else, for that matter) treated like this.
They'll be in Richmond December 2nd, if anyone wants to come help us counter-protest. I'm sure Voices for Planned Parenthood and VCU's atheist/agnostic group United Secular Alliance will be there for publicity.
I'm not sure if UVA is private like the University of Pennsylvania but if it is then they're not going to be able to get on campus. They're probably smart enough to know this though and will protest on city property (which could be as simple as moving across the street).
And, the students shouldn't have to waste their time stopping that church. The police can handle that. No, they can't enter the church, that's definitely private property.