The Church That Staged the Anti-LGBTQ+ Hamilton Has Apologized and Paid Damages

It’s quiet uptown after the McAllen, Texas, church that went viral for their homophobic, Christianized version of the iconic musical Hamilton apologized for the unauthorized productions and agreed to pay unspecified damages.

On Tuesday, nondenominational church The Door McAllen issued an apology statement on Instagram in which its pastor, Roman Gutierrez, admitted that the church “did not ask for, or receive, a license from the producers or creators of Hamilton to produce, stage, replicate or alter any part of Hamilton; nor did we seek prior permission to alter Lin-Manuel Miranda’s work.”

“Lastly, we will pay damages for our actions,” Gutierrez wrote.

In case you missed out on any of the cringiness when news of the production first broke, The Door McAllen’s version, which some people on the internet nicknamed “Scamilton,” followed titular founding father Alexander Hamilton as he embraced Jesus into his life, spitting bars like “What is a legacy? / It’s knowing you repented and accepted the gospel of Jesus Christ that sets men free.”

At the end of the production, Gutierrez delivered a 15-minute sermon, during which he said God wanted to help the audience with their sins and compared homosexuality to drug or alcohol addiction (despite claiming to Dallas Morning News that “everyone is always welcome” in their community). But if you ask us, the real sin was letting your actors perform a Revolutionary War-era musical with hair ties clearly visible on their wrists.

A Texas Church Put on an Illegal Hamilton Show with an Anti-LGBTQ+ Sermon

No one wants to be in the room where this happens.

“The ‘Hamilton’ family stands with tolerance, compassion, inclusivity and certainly LGBTQ+ rights,” a spokesperson for the Broadway show told USA Today earlier this month.

Even now, the show isn’t throwing away their shot to set things right. On Tuesday, a Hamilton spokesperson told The New York Times that it would donate The Door McAllen’s damage payments to the South Texas Equality Project, an organization supporting LGBTQ+ people in the McAllen area. That would be enough.

Get the best of what’s queer. Sign up for Them’s weekly newsletter here.