It’s not every day you see a preacher shouting at students about hellfire and AIDS in Simpson’s Plaza, but that is exactly what made last week so exciting. A man who calls himself “Brother Matt” made a surprise stop on our campus, deciding that noon on a Wednesday was as good a time as any to share his message with the people. Sporting a neon shirt and a large sign, “Brother Matt” made it impossible to be ignored for long, and soon a large crowd gathered around him. It was discovered after he left that his full name was Matt Bourgault and he spends his time traveling the country to preach his hateful rhetoric.
“Are you praying for the peace of Jerusalem or are you praying for the destruction of Jerusalem? You bunch of anti-Semitic God-haters,” Bourgault said, arguing that Israel is justified in its crusade against Palestine. Only moments before this, the conversation was focused on how gay people will need to wear adult diapers in the future because of their “dirty sexual acts”. There was no segue from one topic to the other.
When I attempted to approach him, wanting to ask his name and what organization he was from, he said, “Stay back. You got plague. Don’t come any closer.” At one point, Bourgault even called me a “dirty, dirty lesbian.” I was not the only one to be on the receiving end of his prejudice though, as he then went on to say that all women who play volleyball or softball are lesbians and “Matthew Shepard is in Hell.”
Much of the afternoon was spent going in circles with “Brother Matt’, as he rambled on about the same few subjects over and over.
“This guy doesn’t represent a lot of Christianity…. and the fact that he’s just out here openly harassing our LGBTQIA students, calling our Muslim students terrorists, that’s not a good look for us, unfortunately. Of course, it’s his right to be out here and say what he wants but… this guy has nothing better to do? He could be using his platform for a million different things. Asheville, North Carolina is underwater right now, and this guy wants to come out here and regurgitate the same ‘God hates gay people’ type stuff that’s all been said before and hasn’t really swayed anyone,” said Logan Raper, a senior here at UW.
Another student, Megan Hoffman, said, “We tried to talk to him for 20 minutes and it just didn’t go anywhere. We want people to hear the actual gospel so we’ve been buying people coffees. We wrote this [on the coffee cup], it’s 1 John 3:16 ‘This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.’… His claim is that he’s perfect. I am a practicing Christian and he told me that I’m hell bound and a hypocrite because I still sin. All the Christians on campus would like everyone to know that this is not an accurate depiction of Jesus or God or the Bible.”
“Demagogues have no place in presenting the Gospel. It should be presented in an intellectual and philosophical manner, out of love for all humanity, to bring about virtue and beauty that glorifies the Father,” said Gabe Saint, President of Turning Point UWYO.
Bourgault returned on Thursday to continue his rants, but this time he was met with even more student backlash. The crowd surrounded him and tried to shout over him, with some students holding up pride flags and playing music over speakers to drown him out.
Even Matt Groathouse, colloquially known as “Skater Guy”, got involved, skateboarding in circles around Bourgault and performing tricks. “I have nothing against anyone super religious, but he’s saying some pretty wacky remarks and some pretty derogatory stuff to people. People were wanting me to interrupt his chi and his vibes so that’s what I did,” Groathouse said.
When reached out to for an official comment by the Young Americans for Liberty group on campus, representative JW Rzeszut said, “While we believe that the bigoted rhetoric of “Brother Matt” is undeniably despicable and undesirable in public discourse, to our understanding of the nature and context of his comments he was entirely within his rights to say what he said. While hate speech is completely unacceptable, it is important that it is and continues to be protected by the First Amendment due to its subjective nature. It is regrettable that innocent students were subject to Brother Matt’s reprehensible behavior, however, we believe the university made the right decision in upholding its commitment to Freedom of Expression.”
Due to students’ reactions, Bourgault ended his sermon early on Thursday and was escorted by campus police to his car.
“This guy is just out here for attention, and maybe we’re the fools for giving him the audience, but I think it’s important to know that we don’t stand for this,” said Raper, and I can’t help but agree. As a “dirty, dirty lesbian” it was heartwarming to see the amount of support there for LGBTQIA+ students and other marginalized groups. What Bourgault was saying was undeniably disgusting, but the gathering of the community was beautiful. It’s been a tough few years for LGBT students here on campus, especially with the recent closure of the Rainbow Resource Center and the return of Todd Schmitt to the Union, but it’s nice to see that bystanders are willing to step up and defend us when the moment calls for it.
As one anonymous student put it, “[Students coming together] is really showing why Laramie is so great.”
