The Laramie Project: Western Pastoral

Abstract

All of the people above were murdered — murdered because of their sexual orientation. Yet probably only one name is widely familiar: Matthew Shepard, the young, gay, university student who was tied to a fence, beaten, pistol-whipped, and left to die in the cold. Why did Shepard, in particular, become the focus of enormous mainstream media and popular attention, including that of the White House? Doubtless, the violence and context of the crime are partly the cause; yet the other victims suffered equally horrendous deaths. Matthew's race, class, and age may have had much to do with the public interest in his story: he was white, attractive, middle-class — he could have been the college aged son of any stereotypical middle-class American family. However, the other primary factor involved has to do not so much with Matthew himself as with the location of the crime — the West.

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