Lin-Manuel Miranda Sues over Church's Unauthorized, Anti-Gay 'Hamilton'

Lin-Manuel Miranda has initiated legal proceedings against a Texas church that put on an unauthorized, anti-gay production of his hit musical, "Hamilton," according to ABC News.

A church in McAllen, Texas, called "The Door," rewrote Miranda's text, the ABC News report said, "to reflect Christian values" – including a sermon that compared being gay to being addicted to drugs.

Miranda himself implied that he was taking legal action in an Aug. 10 tweet in which he thanked "all of you who reached out about this illegal, unauthorized production."

"Now lawyers do their work," the writer/composer/actor said.

Miranda added that he was "grateful to the @dramatistsguild, who have the backs of writers everywhere, be it your first play or your fiftieth."

The guild had issued a statement condemning the unauthorized production, noting that "in addition to performing the show without a license, the Door McAllen Church changed lyrics and added text without permission."

The guild further noted that "No organization, profession, amateur, or religious, is exempt from" statutes that protect authors from having the work performed in unauthorized productions or their text rewritten "without authorial consent."

"Per copyright law, churches do have some exemptions," ABC News said, "but those do not include video, streaming or distribution outside of a service."

As previously reported at EDGE, the church "sparked outrage among fans of the Broadway show after reports began circling that their unauthorized production of 'Hamilton' included a major homophobic makeover."

"Several biblical themes were added to the production and a sermon that compared homosexuality to addiction capped off the productions grand finale."

"'Maybe you struggle with alcohol, with drugs – with homosexuality,' one of the church's pastors ask, 'maybe you struggle with other things in life, your finances, whatever, God can help you tonight. He wants to forgive you for your sins.'"

The earlier report noted a claim by "pastor Roman Gutierrez [who] said the church was granted legal permission for the production and insisted that the church is not anti-LGBT."

But a spokesperson for the show said this was not true.

"Hamilton does not grant amateur or professional licenses for any stage productions and did not grant one to The Door Church," the spokesperson stated.

A cease-and-desist letter was reportedly sent to the church.