Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan, Members of the Westboro (Kansas) Baptist Church picketed Grosse Pointe South High School and the nearby Christ (Episcopal) Church to protest a play produced at the school called ""The Laramie Project."" The play is about the 1998 torture and beating death of Matt Shepard, an openly gay college student, in Laramie, Wyoming. Westboro church members believe God is punishing America because of its tolerance of homosexuality. Members of the church lined up on the church lawn with their backs turned towards the protesters to symbolically turn their backs on hate.