View on The Laramie Project

         
The brutal murder of 21 year old Matthew Shepard was an astonishing event that spread throughout the world in the matter of hours. After finishing Act III of The Laramie Project  the main theme of the play was prejudice. Throughout the book the interviews Kaufman had where very judgmental in terms of whether or not Aaron and Russell were on Meth when the murder took place, whether it was a hate crime because Matthew was gay, or was it because they wanted to rob him because they knew he had money. Residents in Laramie would make up these rumors judging Aaron and Russell and accusing them for what didn't even occur. Without hearing the real stories of the action taken place people worldwide believed in lies from other people and not hearing the real facts of it all. "You don't forget that. Five fifty in dimes and quarters. That's a freakin' nightmare. Now Henderson and McKinney, they didn't seem intoxicated at all. They came in-- they just ordered a beer, took the pitcher with them back there into the pool room, and kept to themselves"(Kaufman 27-28). This quote is very important because Kaufman had interviewed the bartender, Matt Galloway that served Matthew, Aaron, and Russell when they were at the bar the night of the murder and was the person who thought it was suspicious from the beginning that Aaron and Russell paid for the pitcher of beer in dimes and quarters just for themselves. Matt being a believable suspect wouldn't be stupid enough to lie about a thing that was so skeptical. "Blacked out. My fist. My pistol. The butt of the gun. Wondering what happened to me. I had a few beers and I don't know. It's like I could see what was going on but I don't know but I don't know, it was like somebody else was doing it"(Kaufman 88-89). When Aaron had said this he seemed very uncertain about that night like he was intoxicated or on some drug. It's like Aaron was trying to cover something up and didn't want to seem like he was himself that night. All through the book there was rumors going around and being judgmental towards not just Aaron and Russell but towards people that disliked gays. "You and the straight people of Laramie and Wyoming are guilty of the beating of Matthew Shepard just as the Germans who looked the other way are guilty of the deaths of the Jews, the Gypsies, and the homosexuals. you have taught your straight children to hate their gay and lesbian brothers and sisters..."(Kaufman 53) An email was sent to Philip Dubois after he wrote the Denver Post Story on the Matthew Shepard story criticizing innocent people that hadn't be involved in the Matthew Shepard murder at all. People started accusing straight people for the murder of Matt because they were straight and told their kids that they should hate the gays as well. The prejudice in The Laramie Project was a constant struggle for people in Laramie and everywhere else because people didn't know what to think. They didn't know what actually happened causing a more dramatic issue to the bigger problem.

          When people first heard about the murder of Matthew Shepard and the fact that he was gay everyone thought it was a hate crime. From the interviews from The Laramie Project written by Moisés Kaufman, he interviewed not just the main people that were part of Matthew's life and the people involved in it but got other people's perspectives and opinions on whether it actually was a hate crime or something else. Based off of the reading of The Laramie Project it sounded like it was a hate crime because it targeted to that specific fact and how Aaron and Matthew had sexual interactions with each other. When the ABC 20/20 special on the murder of Matthew Shepard was released it took the problem into more depth revealing that it wasn't a hate crime at all. Interviewing Aaron and Russell about the murder was very fascinating seeing why they did it in the first place. Mentioned in the clip Aaron said that he had been doing drugs everyday and hadn't had slept for two weeks. The main reason why Aaron struck Matthew was because Aaron had no control over himself because of the use of Meth that he took earlier that day. He stated in the The Laramie Project he wasn't himself when he murdered Matthew and something or someone was controlling him making him more violent than he actually was. All three of them had been in the drug scene, selling Meth to each other and Aaron said that Matthew had owed a lot of money to Aaron. Most people would say that the murder of Matthew Shepard was a hate crime but others would say that it was because of the use of drugs but the real question that puts everything into perspective is the fact that Aaron stated that he would of done it to anyone. The fact that Matthew intended to be gay was a coincidence and people were mistaken for it being a hate crime.