The Laramie Project - 10 Years Later

posted by Byron Edgington

The Laramie Project is a play constructed around the beating death of Matthew Shepard, a young gay man who had been living in Laramie Wyoming. Matthew Shepard was beaten to death in 1998 by two men who had agreed to drive him home from a bar. After spending 18 hours lashed to a fencepost in a rural area outside Laramie, Matthew was found barely alive, taken to intensive care, where he died
several days later.

The play isnʼt so much about Matthew Shepard, however. The Laramie Project is a drama about the town of Laramie itself, its people, who had always believed themselves to be free of hatred and homophobic irrationality, and who had believed themselves committed to a simple, uniquely western mentality of live and let live.

The people of Laramie, forced to acknowledge and be immersed in the death of Matt Shepard, and forced to watch two of their own young men, his killers, judged in their court, learned about themselves. They learned that, despite their protestations that “it couldnʼt happen here”, it did happen there. In spite of their core belief in the live and let live mentality, when a young gay man made a mistake, or acted in a certain way, or simply announced who he was, he paid for it with his life. The people of Laramie, Wyoming learned that here in America, the land of the free, certain people are not free, they just hear others use those words, unthinking, uncaring that there are those in our midst who live in fear every day. They live in fear that in just acting normally, being themselves in a public place, theyʼre jeopardizing more than their jobs, their social standing, their accommodations, or their friendships no matter how long-standing. These individuals live in fear that they may be jeopardizing their very lives. In America. The land of the free. Today. Now.

The Laramie Project is a drama unlike any other, insofar as it makes for its characters the subjects of the drama itself. The people of Laramie, in agreeing to be interviewed, show us their roles in the death of Matthew Shepard. And for many of those people, particularly those who would have denied any connection to the murder itself, the role was innocent bystander. But, listening to their remarks, hearing the familiar undercurrent of disdain, repulsion and homophobia creep into their conversations, one comes away believing that yes, indeed, such a crime could happen in Laramie. Many of the fine citizens of Laramie reveal their true feelings in their immediate assumption that Matthew Shepard must have been, in some way, for some reason, at fault himself. He must have been ʻflaunting itʼ, as one person said, or, as one of his killers said, ʻasking for itʼ. These are the same people who wouldnʼt dream of asking about a womanʼs dress size or makeup after sheʼd been raped. Yet the assumption is there that Matt Shepard instigated his own murder by acting in a way that gave two young men license to kill him.

Thereʼs a need for hate crimes legislation in this country, and not just in Wyoming. Laws against murder, mayhem, assault and manslaughter fill our law books now. But a hate crime bill codifies, finally, that there are indeed, still, in modern day America, those who sense justification in the killing of those who are different. Hate crimes legislation has nothing to do with gay protection, or the singling out of any particular group, religion ethnicity or identity. Hate crimes happen against mainstream individuals, too, the so-called white-bread American. Though it ought to be self-evident in the United States that we should all enjoy the simple freedom to be ourselves, there are still those who fail this first rule of citizenship by denying that right to their neighbors because theyʼre somehow different.

The Laramie Project is ten years old this year. Its sequel and followup is being presented across the country, in several different venues. If you happen to see an ad for this fine drama, make a point of seeing it. One thing to keep in mind: Itʼs titled The Laramie Project. But it could just as easily be The Toledo Project--The Memphis Project--The Atlanta Project--The Spokane Project. One thing the play will force from all of us is a thorough examination of our own attitudes about those who may be living in fear right next door.