It's a dream come true for Marilyn Manson's publicists. Just a few weeks ago, a typical Orlandoan's response to this statement might have been, "Marilyn who?" Now, thanks to the public outcry against this band's performance at UCF's arena on Tuesday, April 15th, anyone up on local news knows who this group is, what they do on stage, and what they look like.

Tickets for the performance, which protestors label - among other things - anti-Christian, Satanic, anti-parent, and pornographic, went on sale March 8th. It wasn't until April 2nd, however, that UCF started taking heat from local church and community groups, including their own campus ministry, Christian radio station WEAZ 88.3 FM, and Orange County Commissioner Clarence Hoenstine.

What spurred the late reaction to Marilyn Manson's UCF arena performance? According to UCF's Dean of Public Affairs, Dan McFall, an April 2nd mention of the group's upcoming performance in the Orlando Sentinel sparked the outcry. Prior to Leslie Doolittle's brief blurb on the lack of protest to the show ("‘Antichrist' on the way" pg. A2), UCF had received no complaints. But since April 2nd, the university's public affairs office has been bombarded with complaints and requests to cancel the show. The day before the concert, the office received 625 phone calls and a 2 ˝ inch stack of faxes, according to the dean. Then, the night before the concert, a campus ministry group held a prayer vigil outside the arena; four individuals showed up to "protest the protest."

When asked to comment on the impact of the Sentinel's news coverage of the lack of local protest to the show, Doolittle defended the newsworthiness of the topic. "We saw a wire story out of Jacksonville (about the protest against Marilyn Manson's April 17th show booked there), and decided to see if it (a protest) was happening in Orlando - it wasn't."

Did UCF know what Marilyn Manson was all about before the concert was booked? McFall admitted they did, but was quick to justify UCF's position. "This is not a university sponsored event. The arena is a public institution, which means anybody can rent it. Repugnant as it is to us, under the law, we have no right to turn down the request to lease the area, or to ban him from performing. This is the cost of freedom."

Whether or not the group's right to play at UCF can be described as a "cost" of freedom is debatable. Yet, the issue does boil down to one of rights. Marilyn Manson has a constitutional right to play at UCF; Marilyn Manson has a constitutional right to preach Satanic views; and Christian groups have a constitutional right to protest the band's message. It's the clashing of these rights that makes things interesting. (In this case, we can thank the Sentinel for fanning the flames.) With that in mind, I decided to head over to UCF's arena the night of the concert to see what the different sides had to say.

Anna Sheldon I'm a transplanted Detroiter who's slowly (and, I admit, a bit reluctantly) growing fond of Central Florida. I miss the Great Lakes, apple orchards, snow and six months of bug-free living, but I'm really getting used to the daily (almost) sunshine, the lack of slush and salt, pothole-free tourist-funded roads and not paying any state income tax. The thing that makes me feel most like a Central Florida native: In the two years I've lived here, despite the outrageous number of "visitors" I've had, I've managed to avoid going to the Magic Kingdom. Other Articles I've Written