There are moments in history when a particular event brings the various ideologies and beliefs prevailing in a culture into sharp focus. At these junctures the event becomes a lightning rod of sorts, attracting and distilling the essence of these philosophies and convictions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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By paying careful attention in moments like this to people's words, one is able to hear the way these prevailing ideas affect not only individual lives but also the culture at large.
  The brutal murder of Matthew Shepard was an event of this kind. In its immediate aftermath, the nation launched into a dialogue that brought to the surface how we think and talk about homosexuality, sexual politics, education, class, violence, privileges and rights, and the differences between tolerance and acceptance.

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Comments on The Laramie Project

"How did I ever let that stuff make me think that you were different from me?" Jedidiah What is the "stuff" that makes people haters? This play, The Laramie Project, explores these questions. As the title suggests, it all takes place in a small college town where the people are even nicer than those in the midwest. Where kids can stay out until 11 p.m. and their parents don't think twice about it. Everyone knows most everyone else and many like the familiarity since they picture themselves as basically good. Basically good means, as the residents agree, you are not different. Difference in the "stuff" that make people behave in a hateful way. Imagine yourself as a parent who is extremely involved in your child's life: you attend all the soccer games, the baseball games, the plays your child is in. There is nothing you do not attend. Then, when that child decides to do a reading from a play in a competition for a drama scholarship to the University, you decide that you cannot attend. Why? Because the reading is from a play about gays. The message is clear to the child: certain people are to be hated, outside the pale, objects of vilification, beyond the protection of the society. And certain religions promote the outcast concept. as one of the religious leaders of Laramie put it, "There is no secual deviation or promiscuousness in (our church). No--no leniency. We just think it's (homosecuality) out of bounds." In this atmosphere and as a result of the heinous crime, it could be expected that the town would be introspective, asking themselves if there could have been something they might have done to prevent such a crime. Instead a typical reaction by residents was to blame the media for focusing on them. The townspeople called the press "predators," engaging in "sensationalism" and maligning the "good people" of Laramie. The residents were incensed that the press called it a hate crime. Instead the residents bllame the victim. A highway patrolman's wife thinks Matthew brought the death on himself. by flaunting his homoseuality. Even the murderers were convince they were excused from their actions because Matthew, they claimed, came on to them. A few residents, however, were less sure Matthew's death was treated as sensational. In fact, some felt that the "media actually made peopel accountable." The media made gopel "own it." What was the outcome of the murder of Matthew Shepard? The murderers were found guilty. According to one resident, "those two boys got what they deserved and we look good now. Justice has been served. The town's cleaned up and we don't need to talk about it any more." But, the same resident observed, really, nothing has changed. No laws have been changed, no hate crime legislation, no anti-discrimination law at any level, state or local. So, "shat's come out of this that's concrete or lasting?" Probably nothing and the inaction is supported by a governor who believes hate crime legislation is a "special right" for gays. What can be learned from what occurred in Wyoming is, as one reporter said, an "extremem version of what happens in our schools on a daily basis." Secual minority children are harassed constantly. The suicide rate among gay teenagers if far higher than it is for all other teenagers. Gays are cikced out of their apartments when owners find out about their secusl orientation. Gays lose their jobs, solely because of the secual orientation. The litany could go on but clearly to protect gays is not giving them special rights. Rather it is to give them a place in our society that's not ouside the pale. Laramie is a mirror. Look hard and begin to understand.

-- Professor Charlene I. Smith
Washburn University Law School

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