Matthew Shepard Research Paper

October 7, 1998, 21-year-old Matthew Wayne Shepard was murdered in what is likely the most infamous anti-gay hate crimes in American History.

Horrific, unthinkable acts of violence against a young gay man, Matthew Shepard, took his life in 1998. This social problem was thrust into the mainstream media largely by his mother, Judy Shepard. She used her tragedy to create awareness, outrage and support exposing violence based solely on sexual orientation. Her work along with activists that joined her helped create our nation’s first hate crime legislation that included crimes motivated by a victim's actual or perceived gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability. It also made several other important provisions such as tracking hate crimes based on gender identity (transsexuals), funding to investigate and other critical supports. The Matthew Shepard Foundation does significant work on hate prevention programs in communities and continues to work toward tolerance today through its efforts to provide a voice and support for LGBT youth. Although some progress has been made, different forms of violence against gay and transgendered youth remains a troubling condition.

Moses Kaufman is the producer of the successful play “The Laramie Project” after a horrific incident that occurred in Laramie. Members of the artistic group of Kaufman 's, traveled to Laramie to find out more about the horrific incidence. The main aim of the whole project was to find the emotions, reactions, and reflections that the people of Laramie manifested concerning the beating and subsequent death of a twenty-three-year-old college student (Gale, 2016). A lot of questions were raised concerning the death as people had different point of views. Some thought it was a hate crime, others thought it was just a brutal assault or a form of robbery. Four hundred interviews were conducted so as to come up with the reasons behind the brutal murder straight from the town folks. The main issue was how homosexuality was defined in the crime. The Laramie Project, questioned the rights of the LGBT+ group. For example, why were Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals, and Transgenders discriminated by the community and the society as a whole even though their rights were constitutional?

Laramie, WY, is a modest town which became ignominious overnight in the fall of 1998, when Matthew Shepard, a gay college student, was found tied to a fence after being callously beaten and left to die, setting off a nationwide dispute about homophobia and hate crimes. My reaction to this moment in time initially is horror and shock that people did and do these unspeakable acts to their fellow human. However, I can also appreciate the many different views that were portrayed in the film.

The human body is an object in which one lives and the medium through which one experiences oneself and the world. The human body vests claims on ideology and space; and thus participates as the site on which conflicts about belief systems and territory contest violently. Gay bodies become entangled in violence when they enter into arenas that combat certain ideas. Gay bashing illustrates incidences all in which bodies experience physical injury. In modern U.S. communities various militant conservatives individually target homosexuals in "gay bashing." Though few conservative political groups explicitly avow targeting gays for physical violence, their members individually carry out anti-gay brutality. Mathew

Religion played an enormous role in Laramie before and after the incident with Matthew Shepard, as it continues to do in many religious individuals to this day. Jedidiah Schultz, a local of Laramie, Wyoming told his story about getting into Wyoming University. “And they brought me into their room and told me that if I did that scene, that they would not come to see me in that competition”(10). Schultz’s parents are an example of this time period where religion is a strong factor in making decisions of daily morals. When the Tectonic Theater Project spoke to the Reverend after Shepard’s beating, he addressed the wrongness of violence, but didn’t really directly address the issue of homosexuality, probably unwilling to directly speak out against

The Laramie Project is a play written by Moises Kaufman and the members of Tectonic Theater Project. The play is based on the interviews of the citizens of Laramie about what’s happening in Laramie and their responses to the murder of Matthew. In addition to the various themes suggested by the play, the author wanted to present the varying perspectives toward homosexuality in the Laramie community at the time of Matthew’s death. The author also wanted to explore how these perspectives may have changed as the result of Matthew’s death. Even though the citizens of Laramie persisted that hate is not a value they practice, they still showed contrasting and puzzled views

I have recently watched the movie called “The Laramie Project.” The Laramie project is about a young gay student named Matthew Sheppard, who was murdered in Laramie, Wyoming by two boys from the town named, Aaron McKinley and Russell Henderson. The evidence and testimonies from the case suggested that Matthew was attacked, because of his sexuality as a gay man. Matthew was beaten, tied to a fence and left dead in Laramie, Wyoming in 1988. This movie captures the reaction of the murder and draws on hundreds of interviews conducted by the theatre company with the inhabitants of the town, company members, own journal entries, and published news reports. After watching this movie, I reflected on my own perspectives and thoughts about a few issues in the movie, such as hate crime, the phrase “Live and Let Live,” and “flaunting it.”

“The Laramie Project” is a production that was created to addressed the cruel murder of 21-year-old Matthew Shepard who lived in a small town of Laramie, Wyoming. Due to this critical situation that occurred, the state of Wyoming suffered from major judgements from other states in the U.S and countries around the world. Laramie, had demonstrated stereotypical actions and discrimination towards the gay community, due to the people who had killed Matthew being homophobic. When the incident occur in 1998, the legislative had not introduced the end to anti- discrimination for the society, but is now introduced this year, 2017(King, 2017). Sexual prejudice includes stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination based on ones’ sexual identity or behavior, in which this term can relate to what occurred in the small town of Laramie, Wyoming (Blaine, pg. 163).

The death of Matt Shepard caused a great scandal in the media. The media raged over the fact that a young, gay male who was "the boy next door" who looked like "everybody's brother and everybody's neighbor" or "anyone's son" had been killed by two of the town's residents who were portrayed as anti-gay (Loffreda 252). There is no solid answer as to why the two men killed Shepard, but the media made assumptions, possibly in an effort to make their story become more sensationalized. For all anyone knows, Shepard himself could have tried attacking the two men first; or possibly, the two men could have wanted to give Shepard a warning by beating him, not expecting him to die. Maybe it was just the way the boys were brought up, to be anti-gay. The

What happens next is what changed this from a triggered “Gay Panic Defense” (which is, in my opinion a completely bogus and ridiculous excuse for those who can’t control their fists) to a hate crime and a murder. After severely beating Shepard in the moving truck, Henderson tied him to the fence. Their decision to tie his body up for everyone to see is part of their intensions to make it a public display of what they believe should be private. In an interview for the Laramie Project (a play based on the events of Matthew’s death), McKinney’s girlfriend tells writers about why the two men really decided to invite Matt into their car. After being disgusted at the thought of being hit on by a gay man they go to the bathroom where they plan to put on a gay pretense in order to lead Shepard into their vehicle and rob him. They wanted him to be punished for “coming onto straight people.” By lifting his body in midair and tethering him to the fence they were aware that someone would find him that way. They didn’t hide or trash or burry the body, they made it a spectacle. But in doing this, you can deduce that this murder wasn’t fully about Matthew Shepard. He was a trigger, he was someone they could take advantage of. They used his body to show not only to Matthew himself, but to Laramie and the surrounding community that they were defending their ‘manhood.’ And in one

The climax came in 1998 with the hate crime killing of Matthew Shepard, a 21 year old gay college student who was savagely beaten and left for dead. With such a heavy push for civil rights for the LGBT community clashing with the opposing political powers, Chasing Amy couldn’t have been released at a more prevalent

Sadly, the persecution of the gay community by the police is far more serious than that of the general public. In March 9, 1969 - Howard Efland, a gay man who had checked into the Dover Hotel in Los Angeles, under the pseudonym J. McCann, was beaten to death by officers of the Los Angeles Police Department. It is not difficult to see that homosexual acts are generally not acceptable at the moral

Sexual assault is defined as a sexual activity without permission of someone. It can be done in different ways, such as rape, forceful sodomy, incest, and child molestation. Throughout the world, sexual assault is not an isolated problem. It affects significantly different groups in the society. Most of the victims are female, gay, transgender persons, lesbian and bisexual. The origin of violence against LGBT persons is based on social prejudice, homophobia and transphobia. As consequences, members of this community live in fear, they commit suicide, and they are confronted with different diseases and poverty. This research will bring LGBT experiences to the legal system of the United States. It will examine how the use of homophobia and transphobia

While the fate of these individuals is tragic, the work that they did was influential, and the effect is seen today. In their time, to be homosexual would kill a career;