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N.C. Gay
Conference To Be Held
Under
Tight Police Security
by AP
from 365 gay.com on the Web, August 28, 2005
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Lake Junaluska, N.C. A meeting
of gay Methodists in western North Carolina over Labor Day weekend has law
enforcement officials preparing for protests from conservative groups and the Ku
Klux Klan.
Haywood County Sheriff Tom Alexander met with other officers Thursday to plan
for the Sept. 2-5 gathering at the Lake Junaluska Assembly of the Reconciling
Ministries Network, a Chicago-based group that wants the United Methodist Church
opened to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Christians. The conference,
called Hearts On Fire, is expected to attract about 500 attendees.
Among those planning to protest the meeting are the Cordele, Ga.-based American
White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, the Asheville Citizen-Times reported Friday.
Imperial Wizard J. J. Harper told the newspaper he expects 20 Klan protesters in
plain clothes. State law bans the KKK from wearing masks in public.
Alexander plans to deploy his own deputies, members of the Junaluska Assembly's
13-officer force and officers from the State Bureau of Investigation, the FBI
and the state Highway Patrol around the conference site.
Officers from other municipalities will be on call to respond to problems,
Alexander said.
"I am more worried about the non-organized protesters than the organized
protesters," he said.
The security chief for the privately owned assembly, Steven Staley, said pro-gay
and anti-gay protesters will be asked to go to separate areas of the campus.
Local newspapers have been filled with letters about the conference in recent
days. On Sunday, Nesbitt Chapel United Methodist Church in nearby Buncombe
County bought a half-page newspaper ad urging "Christian Brothers and Sisters in
Christ" to join them in "standing against the pro-homosexual rally" planned for
Labor Day weekend.
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