“The leader of a group championing family values threatened to send a camera crew to the controversial (Saginaw Valley State University) play to tape its scenes of male nudity. Gary Glenn, head of Michigan’s chapter of the American Family Association, did show up at a Saturday evening performance with a cameraman, but campus police refused to admit them. …Glenn had said he wanted the nude images on tape to convince lawmakers that SVSU is breaking indecent exposure laws.”

SAGINAW NEWS
Saginaw, Michigan
April 30, 2007

SVSU turns away cameraman from show
The only drama in Saginaw Valley State University’s final productions of “Angels In America: Part One” came on stage, college officials say.

Last week, the leader of a group championing family values threatened to send a camera crew to the controversial play to tape its scenes of male nudity.

Gary Glenn, head of Michigan’s chapter of the American Family Association, did show up at a Saturday evening performance with a cameraman, but campus police refused to admit them, said J.J. Boehm, SVSU spokesman.

“They had a short, polite conversation with university police and left,” Boehm said.

Glenn had said he wanted the nude images on tape to convince lawmakers that SVSU is breaking indecent exposure laws. Boehm said recording devices weren’t allowed per the licensing rights.
The last performance was Sunday.

http://www.mlive.com/news/saginawnews/index.ssf?/base/news-22/1177943162248250.xml&coll=9

“Gary Glenn, head of the Michigan unit of the American Family Association, a national group championing ‘family values,’ says he’s hired a cameraman to tape (a play presented by Saginaw Valley State University’s theater department) ’so legislative budget-writers and taxpayers alike can see what SVSU is paying for with our tax dollars.’ The play features male nudity, and Glenn of Midland said he wants the images on tape to convince lawmakers that SVSU is breaking indecent exposure laws. …Glenn said he was spurred to hire a cameraman in part by the decision of 43 members of the Michigan House of Representatives who sent a signed letter to SVSU President Eric Gilbertson protesting the college’s decision to sponsor the play.”

SAGINAW NEWS
Saginaw, Michigan
April 28, 2007

Play’s nudity stirs ‘values’ group
by Justin Engel

The curtain hasn’t closed on the “Angels In America: Part One” controversy. Tonight, Saginaw Valley State University’s drama about people dealing with AIDS could feature some action. Gary Glenn, head of the Michigan unit of the American Family Association, a national group championing “family values,” says he’s hired a cameraman to tape the 8 p.m. production “so legislative budget-writers and taxpayers alike can see what SVSU is paying for with our tax dollars.” The play features male nudity, and Glenn of Midland said he wants the images on tape to convince lawmakers that SVSU is breaking indecent exposure laws. University officials say they don’t allow recording devices into the theater, but Glenn promises the cameraman — he won’t say who — will pursue the effort unless law officers deny him entry. “We will not be intimidated by the theater staff or the director,” he said.

SVSU spokesman J.J. Boehm said he couldn’t say whether Glenn’s effort will affect the play’s security. Typically, SVSU staff and students sell tickets and admit showgoers into the Curtiss Hall theater. Boehm said recording “Angels In America” would violate the college’s agreement with the company that licenses performance rights for Tony Kushner’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play. “We can’t even record it for our (theater) students to critique themselves with,” Boehm said. The president of the licensing company, Christopher Gould of New York City-based Broadway Play Publishing Inc., said recording the production would break laws.
“Anybody making an audio or videotape would be doing so in violation of federal copyright laws,” Gould said. His company owns rights to its content, he said.

Glenn said copyright laws only pertain to individuals selling recordings for cash. Instead, Glenn said he intends to use the tape as evidence. He said a 2005 Michigan Court of Appeals ruling held that application of the state’s indecent exposure law does not infringe on any First Amendment right to artistic expression. Glenn said he was spurred to hire a cameraman in part by the decision of 43 members of the Michigan House of Representatives who sent a signed letter to SVSU President Eric Gilbertson, protesting the college’s decision to sponsor the play. Republican Reps. Kenneth B. Horn of Frankenmuth and John Moolenaar of Midland signed the April 19 letter, which Boehm said he hadn’t seen. He did not know if it’s reached the college.

Horn said it’s unlikely state legislators will withhold appropriation funds in protest, despite the recent threats from Harrison Township Republican Rep. Jack Brandenburg to stall money. “In no way will it affect that funding,” Horn said. “(SVSU) is a big player for us.” Rockford Republican Rep. Tom Pearce began the letter-signing campaign. Gilbertson — he answered the controversy with a letter posted last week on SVSU’s Web site, www.svsu.edu — had a brief response to news of the letter or Glenn’s threats. “I’ve said all I have to say,” he said Friday. He has defended the college’s rights to show the play and the rights of protesters to oppose it.

Glenn also said some community members against the production would attend weekend showings to — in effect — expose themselves to the alleged acts of indecent exposure. “I am aware there will be people attending the play who are capable of filing complaints,” Glenn said. He wouldn’t disclose names. Glenn called “Angels In America’s” use of homosexual themes “a threat to public health.” He said another factor spurring his protest is director Richard B. Roberts Jr.’s “bragging” about the play’s strong themes to The Saginaw News. “We are the only theater in mid-Michigan that can get away with it, because while we want people to come see this show, we’re not tied to ticket sales to survive,” he said in an April 14 report. “I relish doing this.”

Glenn said his protest is aimed at protecting “public morality and order.” Roberts said the fire has forged a close cast. “They absolutely are galvanized by this,” Roberts said. “From a standpoint of a teaching experience, this has been great. It shows that theater can and does make a difference.” Roberts said the public commentary sparked by the production is invaluable.
“(A theater group) is obligated to show all parts of society,” said Roberts, who pointed out that other schools have produced the play since it became available in 1996, including Michigan State University in 1998 and the University of Michigan in 2001. Roberts said all the productions feature the nude scene and its accompanying themes, per the licensing rights.

The play’s final showing is at 3 p.m. Sunday. Tickets still were available Friday night.
http://www.mlive.com/news/saginawnews/index.ssf?/base/news-22/117775584111270.xml&coll=9

DETROIT FREE PRESS
Detroit, Michigan
April 27, 2007

SVSU will continue run of ‘Angels
in America’ despite protests
by Dawson Bell
Free Press Lansing Bureau

A Saginaw Valley State University production of “Angels in America,” the controversial gay-themed play about the AIDS epidemic, will continue its run despite protests from critics that it is obscene and hostile to religion, SVSU President Eric Gilbertson said Friday.

Gilbertson said he also has no plans to heed a call from state Rep. Jack Brandenburg, R-Harrison Township, that he resign for authorizing what Brandenburg called a “repulsive and gratuitous” stage show.

Gilbertson said his refusal to intervene was an issue of academic freedom and free expression. The play is undoubtedly offensive to some people, he said Friday.

“But I think I would have to resign if I didn’t protect my students” from the outside critics, Gilbertson said.

The SVSU production of the Tony- and Pulitzer-Prize winning play includes male nudity and, according to news reports, liberal use of the F-word.

Brandenburg said comments by the plays director — that the university theatre was the only theatre in mid-Michigan that could get away with the performance because it did not rely on gate receipts to survive — were especially galling.

“Taxpaying citizens should not have to subsidize this garbage,” Brandenburg said in a statement released Thursday.

Gilbertson said he received a barrage of critical email about “Angels” before it opened last week, and he posted an open letter on the subject on the school’s website (http://www.svsu.edu/president/speech.cfm?doc_id=5534) explaining his position.

But Gilbertson said he is a bit puzzled over the furor. At least four other Michigan public universities hosted productions of Angels in America since 1999 without significant uproar, he said.

Gilbertson said he had not yet seen the play but planned to attend the Friday evening performance.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070427/NEWS06/70427038/1001/NEWS

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Friday, April 27, 2007
CONTACT: Gary Glenn 989-835-7978

Bipartisan Protest: 43 State Legislators Tell SVSU President They’re “Appalled” by Controversial Play

Family group files formal police complaint, plans to videotape illegal full-frontal nudity scenes as evidence

SAGINAW — A bipartisan group of 43 members of the Michigan House of Representatives this week wrote Saginaw Valley State University President Eric Gilbertson to protest the school theater department’s controversial play “Angels in America,” which the Saginaw News reported “includes full-frontal male nudity and the use of the F word in every way possible.” The play is scheduled to run at SVSU’s on-campus theater three times this weekend.
http://www.mlive.com/printer/printer.ssf?/base/entertainment-1/117654624374380.xml&coll=9

The play’s own director, SVSU faculty member Richard Roberts, Jr., described the play as “eerie, disgusting, and sexually perverted” and bragged that SVSU’s is “the only theater in mid-Michigan that can get away with it because…we’re not tied to ticket sales to survive.”

Roberts’ boast that tax-funding of the university’s theater department allows him to “get away with” such a production has drawn the ire of a statewide family values organization and, in response, a large and growing number of lawmakers who in the weeks ahead will determine the level of SVSU’s continued funding by state tax dollars.

“According to (news reports), this play will have young students performing a play that allows for full-frontal nudity and vulgar language,” a bipartisan group of House members wrote Gilbert. “It is the purpose of this letter to inform you of our disappointment that the university would sponsor a play with this content. The undersigned representatives, and many of our constituents, are appalled that our tax dollars would have any part in funding such a display.”

Among the 43 Democratic and Republican lawmakers who signed the letter are two members of the House Higher Education Appropriations Subcommittee: Rep. Bill Caul, R-Mt. Pleasant, minority vice-chairman of the subcommittee, and Rep. Dave Agema, R-Grandville, as well as House Appropriations Committee minority vice-chairman Rep. Daniel Acciavatti, R-Chesterfield Twp., and half a dozen other members of the full appropriations committee.

The letter is also signed by Rep. Ken Horn, R-Frankenmuth, and Rep. John Moolenaar, R-Midland, both of whom represent portions of Saginaw County in the state House of Representatives.
(more…)

SAGINAW NEWS
Saginaw, Michigan
April 27, 2007

SVSU president defends controversial production
by Justin Engel

Saginaw Valley State University officials say a student play is attracting a lot of fire from a small number of people.
“Angels In America: Part One” began production last week to the chagrin of protesters who oppose the play’s strong content dealing with AIDS, male nudity and homosexuality.
SVSU spokesman J.J. Boehm said he’s received “fewer than a dozen calls” concerning the matter over the last two weeks.
The heaviest barrage of protests have come in the form of e-mails — “hundreds of them” — that he believes originate from an auto-generating e-mail spammer based on the messages’ similarities.
“A few people have given this increasing attention,” said Eric Gilbertson, SVSU’s president. “I don’t think the public at large has.”
Rather than respond to all of the protesting e-mails, Gilbertson last week posted an online note on the college’s home page, www.svsu.edu. The letter defends both the institution’s decision to feature the play and the public’s right to disagree with its content.

“A final word to those of you who would consign me to an eternity in Hades as a result of this matter,” he wrote to finish the letter. “I hope you’re wrong.”
As cast members prepare for the show’s final weekend — two 8 p.m. showings today and Saturday and a 3 p.m. Sunday production remain — Gilbertson hasn’t changed his tune.
“They’re entitled to disagree with (the play),” he said. “They’re not entitled to censor it.”

He pointed out “Angels In America: Part One” is a Pulitzer Prize-winning work. “It was performed at religious (colleges) like Notre Dame,” he said. Boehm said he’s not sure if the controversy has affected ticket sales. He said Director Richard B. Roberts Jr. told him the added attention has “galvanized the cast.” “They believe it’s an important play with a very relevant message,” Boehm said.
He wasn’t sure if or how the controversy might affect donor dollars. “You hope that people recognize that universities do a whole host of things within the context of trying to educate people,” Boehm said. “Some of that might involve making people uncomfortable, but if you never leave your comfort zone, you’re never going to have the exceptional learning opportunities. We hope people understand that’s what universities are here to do.”

http://www.mlive.com/news/saginawnews/index.ssf?/base/news-22/1177683817158190.xml&coll=9

Please read the article below, then add your voice to those protesting Saginaw Valley State’s use of our tax dollars to pay for a presentation that glorifies and promotes homosexual behavior and, according to the Saginaw News, features full-frontal male nudity.

CONTACT:
Eric Gilbertson, President
Saginaw Valley State University
Email: erg@svsu.edu
Phone 989-964-4041

BETWEEN THE LINES
(homosexual newsmagazine)
Detroit, Michigan
April 26, 2007

Michigan far-right protests
Angels in America production

SVSU President responds

by Tana Michaels

SAGINAW — The play, Angels in America Part 1, opened at Saginaw Valley State University last Friday like any other play with one exception; there were police cars in the parking lot. My first thought was how nice it was that law officials would want to view an outstanding play. That, of course, was not the case. They were there because of controversy stirred by the subject matter of the play. The play deals with the emerging AIDS/HIV epidemic hitting the gay community in the 1980s.

Gary Glenn, president of the Midland chapter of the National American Family Association, raised objections to the frontal nudity in Angels in America. The play’s director, Richard Roberts, Jr., said that although it’s true there is nudity, there is nothing in the play, whether it be words or actions, that does not move the play in a necessary forward direction. Roberts says that while he supports Glenn’s right to say that he doesn’t agree with the play, he is spreading mistruths. “He hasn’t even read the play,” said Roberts. “He is saying that there’s female nudity, which there isn’t. That happens in Angels in America Part 2. But if we were showing Part 2, I’d be showing female nudity.”

“I’m surprised that the flak is coming from the nudity,” Roberts pondered. “I thought it would come from the black community, because we have a white actress playing a black man.”

In a posting on MLive.com, Glenn called the nudity in the play, “tax funded porn.” Roberts said that Glenn had simply gotten a tape of the TV series Angels in America and fast forwarded through it looking for parts that he found objectionable.

“The real issue for Gary Glenn is the homosexual theme of the play,” said Roberts. “But the themes are universal. All couples struggle and sometimes one partner leaves. The play shows the truth of humanity and human lifestyles shown through the eyes of a gay couple.”

Roberts has disagreements with some parts of the play as well, but remains true to the script. “The play is the most decorated play in history. It won its first Tony award in 1993 and several others thereafter. It’s a Pulitzer Prize winner. This is a sophisticated play that is usually done by fourth year students, because of its complexity and wordiness. Only 200 Universities in the country are tackling it. The play was written for eight people, but we had such strong auditions, that I opened up the cast to 14.

“The play has been on the schedule for a year and posters have been around for nine months, but we’re just getting bad press now because of Gary Glenn’s postings on Mlive.com,” said Roberts. Saginaw Valley State University has gotten over 1,000, mostly negative, emails, although Roberts said he has received more supportive emails recently.

The flood of emails caused SVSU’s President Gilbertson to write an open letter in which he states the university’s position regarding the play. He writes, “…part of any comprehensive range of performance art must also include pieces that may be more controversial, unnerving, occasionally even raw. Their experiences would be sheltered and incomplete without exposure to contemporary plays that raise troublesome questions - even in controversial ways.”

The police cars were there because of the threatened protest by Glenn, but so far the big, bad wolf who threatened to blow the playhouse down seems to be full of hot air.
http://www.pridesource.com/article.shtml?article=24847

Dear AFA-Michigan supporter,

Below is a copy of my message to Saginaw Valley State University President Eric Gilbertson. Please join us in praying that it will have some positive effect toward ending the use of your family’s tax dollars to pay for this grossly offensive and immoral presentation. Thanks, as always, for your prayers and support!

Gary Glenn, President
American Family Association of Michigan

Dear President Gilbertson,

Regarding Saginaw Valley State University’s presentation of the play “Angels in America,” including full-frontal male nudity in a public venue: if your legal counsel has not already done so, we urge you to examine the Michigan Court of Appeals’ unanimous 2005 rejection of the First Amendment “artistic expression” defense to a violation of Michigan’s indecent exposure law.

See People v. Huffman, Michigan Court of Appeals, May 10, 2005: http://courtofappeals.mijud.net/DOCUMENTS/OPINIONS/FINAL/COA/20050510_C252315_80_73O.252315.OPN.COA.PDF

We find the excerpts below particularly compelling and applicable to SVSU’s knowing and wilful presentation of full-frontal male nudity in violation of the Michigan Penal Code, Act 328 of 1931, Section 750.335a, Indecent Exposure, which states: “A person shall not knowingly make any open or indecent exposure of his or her person or of the person of another.”

Given the criminal penalties provided for violations of this statute, we trust you have fully advised the SVSU faculty member directing the play and the student actors themselves of the potential jeopardy in which they place themselves by knowingly violating provisions of the Michigan Penal Code.

We strongly agree with the Michigan Court of Appeals finding that “public indecency statutes such as the one before us reflect moral disapproval of people appearing in the nude among strangers in public places. …This and other public indecency statutes were designed to protect morals and public order.”

A state institution that receives millions of dollars in public revenue, then uses those tax dollars to violate and undermine laws “designed to protect morals and public order,” must be held accountable, both legally and in terms of its continued receipt of taxpayers’ dollars. If SVSU refuses to obey the laws duly enacted by the Legislature, signed into law by the governor, and upheld by the courts, on what legitimate basis can you ask that same Legislature to continue to fund your activities as before?

This message is being copied to the Attorney General, local law enforcement agencies, members of the Legislature (including members of the House and Senate Higher Education Appropriations subcommittees), and the news media.

Respectfully,

Gary Glenn, President
American Family Association of Michigan
989-835-7978

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Monday, April 2, 2007
CONTACT: Gary Glenn 989-835-7978

“No Evidence an Assault Occurred,” Detroit police say

Group Offers $5,000 Reward for Testimony
on Conspiracy to File False Police Report

Police Urged to Investigate Complicity in False Accusation

DETROIT — A Michigan family values organization falsely accused by a national homosexual activist group of inciting an elderly Detroit man’s alleged “murder” Monday renewed its call for Detroit police to investigate who may have been complicit in the filing of a false police report after a coroner’s report revealed that 72-year old Andrew Anthos died of an accidental fall caused by a degenerative disease.

Gary Glenn, president of the American Family Association of Michigan, Monday announced that to assist such an investigation, the group will pay a $5,000 reward for information resulting in the arrest and conviction of any individual or individuals who encouraged or assisted Anthos in filing what official evidence now indicates was a false police report.

“The county coroner’s findings have already exposed and discredited homosexual activists’ plans to exploit and use this poor man’s death to promote their divisive political agenda,” Glenn said.

“Now we hope our reward will help secure testimony against the Triangle Foundation or whoever it was that persuaded an elderly dying man suffering from mental illness, after he initially told police he didn’t know how he’d been hurt, to change his story a week later and file a false police report accusing an African-American man of attacking him for ‘being gay,’” Glenn said.

Glenn calls for apology from national homosexual group

“Now that police and the county coroner report that Mr. Anthos died of a degenerative disease,” Glenn said, “Matt Foreman of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force — if he has a conscience — will issue an immediate public apology for falsely and maliciously accusing Cardinal Maida of the Archdiocese of Detroit and the American Family Association of Michigan of being responsible for Mr. Anthos’ accidental death.”

Foreman in a Feb. 23rd statement blamed Anthos’ death on “the homophobic rants of Gary Glenn of the American Family Association of Michigan” and “an ugly campaign led by Cardinal Adam Maida to ‘protect marriage’ by writing anti-gay discrimination into (Michigan’s) constitution.”

“It is appalling hypocrisy,” Foreman said, “for (Glenn and Maida) to pretend that their venomous words and organizing have no connection to the plague of hate violence against gay people, including the murder of Mr. Anthos.” http://www.tri.org/violence/pdfs/taskforce.pdf

Student prosecuted for false “hate crime” report in Idaho

Glenn cited a similar situation in Idaho in which a Boise State University student is currently facing criminal charges for filing a false police report alleging that he was also attacked for “being gay.”

The BSU student newspaper in January reported that the Boise city prosecutor “has filed a summons for a BSU student accused of making up an account of an anti-gay assault on the BSU campus. Authorities announced that Alex ‘A.J.’ McGillis, 20, of Boise must appear in court on charges…relat(ing) to a false report McGillis made to police…According to police reports, McGillis initially claimed a white male struck him from behind with an object while using anti-gay expletives.” http://media.www.arbiteronline.com/media/storage/…

Anthos told an almost identical story in his altered police report a week after initially telling police he didn’t know how he’d been hurt, claiming an African-American male struck him from behind with an object while using anti-gay expletives.

Glenn said such fabricated “hate crime” reports are “part of homosexual activists’ manipulative propaganda campaign to promote outrageous legislation under which a criminal would receive a more severe prison sentence for attacking a grown man who’s involved in homosexual activity than he’d get for attacking a pregnant mom or senior citizen or small child.”

“Mr. Anthos’ accidental death was a tragedy to his family and friends because he was a human being, no more so or less so because at some time in his life he may have engaged in homosexual activity,” Glenn said. “Had he or anyone else actually been physically attacked, the assailant should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, not punished any more or less severely based on the victim’s sexual activity.”

Background information

-The Detroit Free Press reported Thursday: “Initially, Anthos told police he did not know what happened to him, police said. But about a week later, he told police he was struck from behind after someone called out, asking him if he was gay.” http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070329/NEWS01/703290305/1003

-The Associated Press reported Thursday: “‘There’s no evidence that an assault occurred,’ police spokesman James Tate said Wednesday. …’They determined that he died of natural causes,’ Tate told The Detroit News.” http://www.mlive.com/newsflash/michigan/index.ssf?/base/news-42/1175135083210020.xml&storylist=newsmichigan

-The Associated Press reported March 21st: “(Cousin Athena) Fedenis said Anthos, who received state disability payments, was diagnosed with mental illness in the 1950s.” http://www.woodtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=6259907&nav=0Rce

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