Dealing With Hate In America
... started putting together the words of the community and what they came up with was a script, a script comprised solely of words that came out of people’s mouths. This script was turned into a play, which premiered at the Denver Center Theatre in February of 2000. Matthew’s story is one of many hate crime stories that happen all the time in what is called the United States, where a person has the freedom to be whatever they want; be it gay, straight, black, white, etc. Matthew has been described by different people as a shy kid, an outspoken, blunt kid, and a very nice humble kid. The one thing about Matthew that would eventually cost him his life was his choice to be gay; his choice to want to be with another man is what would later cost Matthew his life. Matthew was a small young man, standing only 5’2” in stature. He wore braces from the time he was thirteen until the day that he died. On the night of October 6, 1998 Matthew Shepard was out at a local bar in Laramie, when two young men walked in. These men were Russell Henderson, 21, and Aaron McKinney, 22. What actually happened in that bar will never be known for sure, however what is believed to have happened is the following. These two men were both not kosher on Matthew’s choice to be a homosexual, however still offered Matthew a ride back to the University of Wyoming. According to the testimony of Aaron McKinney, Matthew started to come onto the two men while they were driving him home. Aaron continued saying that even after denying Matthew and telling him that they were straight Matthew put his hand on Aaron’s right leg and started rubbing it. At that point the car stopped and the three men got out. Aaron and Russell then began to savagely and brutally beat Matthew, hitting him in the face numerous times with a pistol. After beating him almost to death they tied him to a fence, and before driving off they hit his face more times with the pistol, “just to make sure” that Matthew wouldn’t be bothering them again. Over the next week Matthew fought for his life at Poudre Valley Health Center, only to die on October 12. It seemed as though almost every person in the world had a different reaction to what had happened to Matthew Shepard, with rallies of all kinds going on in each region of the world. Some supported homosexuals, other rallied to say that hate crimes need to stop in our country, while there were still others who believed that Matthew got what he deserved. The small town of Laramie was put under a microscope by the media, and the outside world finally got to see what really happened and what kind of place Laramie was. “Laramie’s a great place to raise kids,” one townsperson said in the movie. “We don’t raise people like that,” another added. The motto of the town after the murder seemed to be “Live and let live,” a motto that can be interpreted into many different things. However, one man seemed to hit the nail on the head when he pointed out, “Basically it works like this, if I don’t tell you I’m a fag you won’t beat the shit out of me, but if I do tell you I’m a fag then I’m dead.” Laramie through the news was portrayed very differently than it was in The Laramie Project. When the story first broke of the Matthew Shepard case, the media around the country went crazy. Each channel seemed to have camped out in Laramie, giving up-to-the-minute reports on what was going on with the murder trials of Matthew’s killers, Aaron and Russell, and how Matt was doing in the hospital. The media was quick to point fingers and ask the question “what kind of town raises people like this?” Reports scoped out the most extreme people in Laramie to try to place the blame on the town, and try to make people understand where this happened. Laramie townspeople were quoted as saying “he got what he deserved”, and others seemed to not have any opinion at all when approached by the world wide media. However, the people of Laramie were portrayed very different throughout The Laramie Project. Because the script of the movie was comprised of only the townspeople’s words, we really got to see what the town of Laramie was like, rather than seeing it on the news. The people were very divers...