Laramie Project Thesis

A 2005 study conducted by National Institute of Justice, found that the Federal Government and all but one state, Wyoming, have laws related to hate crimes. A consistent problem identified by this study is there in no consistency in defining what constitutes a hate crime. (Carrie F. Mulford, Ph.D., & Michael Shively, Ph.D., Hate Crime in America: The Debate Continues, 257, Nat’l Inst Just., (2007). “The Federal Bureau of Investigation defines hate crime—also called bias crime—as “a criminal offense committed against a person, property, or society that is motivated, in whole or in part, by the offender’s bias against a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, or ethnicity/national origin.” ld.

The Laramie Project, written and directed by Moisés Kaufman, is a docudrama that was written and filmed after a homosexual student was brutally beaten and killed in Laramie, Wyoming in 1998. Although he was left in a gruesome and unimaginable state by the two boys that killed him, Matthew Shepard did not die until five days later in a Colorado hospital. The crime brought national attention to hate crimes and caused legislation to be passed punishing those who commit crimes for this reason. The Tectonic Theater Project, a group based in New York City, moved into the small town of Laramie, documenting the town’s reactions to the crime and the attention that it had received. The information gathered from these interviews

Now any one can take a jab at what they think a hate crime is but in the article Understanding Hate Crime Statutes and Building Towards a Better System in Texas the author supports us with his definition of a what is a hate crime “a hate crime, at its basic level is an ‘attack upon the person or property of an individual motivated by hatred of a characteristic of that person, such as race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, or ethnicity’” (Gillis 199). Now that the definition gives us clarity on what exactly labeled onto what exactly is considered a hate crime. For example, did you know that if someone vandalizes a synagogue and they write something offensive to the Followers of that particular religion that will be considered a hate crime because of the person is “motivated by hatred” towards the Followers (Gillis 199). You may have your own perspective on a particular group but if you so happen to put your hands on the person to harm them because of your belief it becomes a hate crime. In its basic form of what is a hate crime Gillis uses the definition so that the reader aware hate crime criteria. Let us take another article for example, In opening of Jesse Larner’s article Hate Crime/Thought Crime he alluded to a situation where two Caucasian men decided to go and attack two African-American with the intent to do some serious harm to them. There were no knowledge as to what was motivated them to do so. One thing for sure according to Larner, Sean Riley Caught up to one of the victims and remorselessly told her “I’m going to kill you, you black bitch”. Without a doubt it is extremely obvious that hatred of a specific race was the driving force behind the gruesome actions posed by the two “men” especially Mr. Sean Riley. There’s no way that the 1st amendment of the United States correlate with the criminal acts that

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

Not all citizens of Laramie conveyed a negative view towards the LGBT community. Marge Murray, together with some of the citizens, gave a notion of live and let live towards homosexuals. Marge explains,

In The Laramie Project, a character name Cathy Connolly claims that gay the people in Laramie feel the oppression from society, and are

In early October, the Mother’s League of Central High and racist white students planned to have a “walk out” of school, to protest integration. Almost 200 kids participated, but some of them had gotten a bad feeling about it when they saw not many people were joining in. The ones who left the school went to a park near the school, where they hung up a black-looking straw dummy. They all took turns beating the dummy, kicking it, stabbing it, and then eventually burning it while other kids cheered. Some boys held Confederate Flags while they burned and beat the black dummy. None of the hostile kids were questioned by the police or in trouble by the school.

Are you seeking or questioning what your purpose in life is? Well, The Vision Quest is a way of fasting and praying to secure your spiritual guardian angel. This is the information one needs to prepare for this journey.

Hate crimes are difficult to fathom, primarily because they involve the unprovoked physical attacking and, sometimes, murder of people based on race and ethnicity. A more formal definition of hate crimes is presented by Shepard (2017, p. 285). As he writes, “a hate crime is a criminal act that is motivated by extreme prejudice,” This is a very good, concise and accurate definition, nevertheless, hate crimes are not the outcome of unimaginable heights of discrimination. Most people have prejudices and many have stereotypes regarding others, whether it be racial or class stereotypes. Nobody is completely lacking in any form, shape or type of prejudice but, the much greater percentage does not physically attack, beat or murder those whom they

America should eliminate the common core throughout the country because common core doesn’t give control to teachers and the parents, doesn’t guarantee improvement, and misses the point of education. The reasoning behind the common core is that “15-year-olds rank 31st in math literacy and 23rd in science literacy.” In 2009 the common core was adopted by most of the United States, but doesn’t mean it was the best idea. The person that came up with common core never even worked in an elementary school. The essay goes to talk about how the power is in the hands of the people that made up the common core. Not the teachers or the student's parents that know the kids best. Then talks about the people that made up common core get to pick and choose

Life for most homosexuals during the first half of the Twentieth century was one of hiding, being ever so careful to not give away their true feelings and predilections. Although the 1920s saw a brief moment of openness in American society, that was quickly destroyed with the progress of the Cold War, and by default, that of McCarthyism. The homosexuals of the 50s “felt the heavy weight of medical prejudice, police harassment and church condemnation … [and] were not able to challenge these authorities.” They were constantly battered, both physically and emotionally, by the society that surrounded them. The very mention or rumor of one’s homosexuality could lead to the loss of their family, their livelihood and, in some cases, their

Brokeback Mountain is a film that describes a tragedy surrounding forbidden love. The love is between two men, Ennis and Jack and the setting is Wyoming for twenty years from the 1960’s to the 1980’s. This was a time of conservative values that looked at homosexuality in a negative light. These values caused Ennis and Jack to create a life that was what was expected in spite of what they wanted. From this came a great deal of frustration and pain for the two men, their wives, and families. The movie also related to a common issue of today’s society and that is the continued discrimination of the LGBT community. There are signs of change in modern society, but also much needed work to be done to allow an individual to live a life with freedom to express their sexuality. When the viewer looks at the film from a sociological perspective, the issue of societal norms is seen and the abnormal relationship in a homosexual relationship is the focus.

Throughout American history, violent criminal acts against a specific person or a group of individuals were just that, violent crimes. In the 1980’s, the term hate crime was born. The term hate crime was used by a group of advocates to describe a series of violent incidents targeting several minorities (Nij.gov, 2015). A hate crime is “a criminal offense committed against a person, property, or society that is motivated, in whole or in part, by the offender 's bias against a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation,

In the 1980’s and 1990’s, society wasn’t the most accepting of places for people who were different from the “social norms”. Now I know, people today still struggle with trying to fit in and be “normal” but it was different. Being a gay man living in San Fransisco at the time, which had a large gay population, Richard Rodriguez had a hard time dealing with the discrimination he faced. Richard Rodriguez was an American journalist who wrote and published a memoir about his life as a gay man. In October of 1990, Rodriguez published his memoir “Late Victorians” in Harper’s Magazine, a critically acclaimed publication of the time. In his memoir, Rodriguez describes what it was like to realize he was gay and watch as the country changed to become a more accepting place. He does this by setting up how things can change and then explaining the actual ways things change for the gay population.

After reading “The Laramie Project” your left with so many questions, ideas and emotions. The play is a series of interviews (reenacted exactly as they happened) to give the audience facts and true statements so that they can form there own opinion. The play takes place in Laramie Wyoming, after the “hate crime” that left 21 year old Matthew Shepard fighting for his life that ended soon after all because the fact that he was gay. Hate is a feeling and hate crime is acting on that hatred, but what exactly is a “hate crime”? What makes it so different from any other crime? Isn't all crime hate crime?