‘Laramie Project’ rells fatal attack on gay man – Broome County Arts Council

Contents:

• THE TTH BEHD AMERI’S MOST FAMO GAY-HATE MURR
• MATTHEW SHEPARD: THE LEGACY OF A GAY LLEGE STUNT 20 YEARS AFTER HIS BTAL MURR
• ‘LARAMIE PROJECT’ RELLS FATAL ATTACK ON GAY MAN
• IN WYOMG, SCENE OF FAMO GAY HATE CRIME AN UNLIKELY LGBTQ HAVEN

THE TTH BEHD AMERI’S MOST FAMO GAY-HATE MURR

"WARNING: This feature ntas language that some rears may fd nights earlier, on Tuday 6 October 1998, Matthew Shepard walked alone to a dive bar ptn, Judy and Dennis Shepard at the Matthew Shepard Foundatn Denver last weekThe openly gay Universy of Wyomg hman had jt met up wh iends to plan LGBT awarens week on the town's he uldn't persua them to jo him for a beer the Firi Lounge, the 21-year-old somehow end up chattg to two roofg workers, Rsell Henrson and Aaron McKney, both the same age as pair saw an easy mark the 5ft 2, slightly built County Sheriff Dave O'Malley, who was lead vtigator the se, says: "McKney's own statement said he and Rsell went to the bathroom at the Firi bar and they planned to act like they were gay to try to ga Matthew's nfince. It is a momento honour not even acrd to another proment gay martyr, Harvey Milk, the San Francis polician assassated the Denver cy centre offic of the LGBT rights foundatn named after her son, Judy Shepard, 66, is fightg back predicted Friday's ceremony would probably be more emotnal for her than the funeral bee she felt so "numb" immediately after her son's source, Getty ImagImage ptn, A vigil for Shepard New York Cy 1998The origal service, amid snow flurri the fay's hometown of Casper, Wyomg, on 16 October 1998, was picketed by an anti-gay preacher om Kansas. Reverend Fred Phelps of Wtboro Baptist Church and his flock, who clud children, held plards dbed wh homophobic slurs and shouted to mourners that the ad stunt was burng Shepard, 69, remembers law enforcement makg him wear a bullet-proof vt to step outsi the Epispal church, which had been sured by bomb-sniffg dogs.

Shepard's murr stoked the perceptn of Cowboy Country and flyover stat general as a danger zone for gay at his office the cy of Cheyenne, McKney trial lawyer Dn Ctis matas was a robbery gone bad, even while he accepts sexual orientatn was a factor. "However, McKney's own gay-bashg rhetoric damns him the ey of source, Getty ImagImage ptn, Thoands gathered outsi the US Capol for a vigil after Shepard's athDurg a police nfsn, he said he began to attack Shepard bee the stunt had put his hand on his leg durg the r ri. " Yet another statement to police, he said Shepard simply looked like he was about to grope the jailhoe after his arrt, McKney reportedly wrote to another mate's wife: "Beg a verry [sic] dnk homofobick [sic] I flipped out and began to pistol whip the fag wh my gun, ready at hand.

"At trial, McKney's lawyers argued that Shepard had ma their client fly to a rage by touchg his the judge dismissed this "gay panic" a legal strategy - where crimal fendants s of vlent asslt argue they were provoked by an unwanted same-sex sexual advance - is still admissible all but three US stat, acrdg to the Williams Instute at UCLA School of Law. Sheriff O'Malley rejects any attempt to downplay the anti-gay element the source, Getty ImagImage ptn, Rev Fred Phelps and his flock prott Laramie 1999"We have never disunted ever that the ial motivatn was robbery, " he says.

MATTHEW SHEPARD: THE LEGACY OF A GAY LLEGE STUNT 20 YEARS AFTER HIS BTAL MURR

The moment was re-enacted as a climactic scene 2002 HBO movie The Laramie the angel actn, was replited two years ago Orlando, Florida, when Wtboro Baptist Church tried to dispt the funerals of gay people killed a mass shootg at the Pulse nightclub. "All of them are that circle of faiary of extreme right-wg relig attus, " she says of the print's bet, " particular to the gay muny, to anybody who's not straight whe Christian. However, Sheriff O'Malley mak clear that theory is not supported by the source, Getty ImagImage ptn, Judy Shepard (L) at the Whe Hoe 2009 for the passage of the anti-hate crim bill named after her son and a black man killed by whe supremacistsThe Old Buckhorn Bar & Parlor Laramie has a mirror pocked by a bullet hole, and walls that bristle wh mounted antelope, buffalo and patron, Jt Bmmet - who proudly scrib himself as "third class whe trash" - says US progrs on gay rights sce Shepard's ath is to be mend.

" Back at the end of the last lennium, many Wyomg apparently thought gay people were as rare on the high plas as jackalop, the state's mythil antlered ptn, (L-R) Universy of Wyomg LGBT stunts Js Fahlsg, Carlos Gonzal and Rihanna KelverShepard's murr - together wh the 2005 gay wboy love story Brokeback Mounta - helped dispel that Connolly, a Universy of Wyomg genr and women's studi lecturer, explas.

‘LARAMIE PROJECT’ RELLS FATAL ATTACK ON GAY MAN

She reunts facg a "horrific" backlash last year om angry voters when she troduced a gay rights source, Getty ImagImage ptn, A dirt road near where Shepard was left to dieA Democrat, she is one of a handful of female lawmakers Wyomg.

"I would be the first person that would tell a joke about gay Amerins and, uh, the word fag rolled off my tongue very easily. 6, 1998, Matthew Shepard, a 21-year-old Universy of Wyomg stunt who was openly gay, went alone to the Firi Lounge Laramie after a meetg of the mp LGBT (Lbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgenr) stunt group and a quick stop at the Village Inn. Shortly after midnight, Shepard left the bar wh McKney and Henrson; police and prosecutors would assert that the two men lured Shepard, perhaps unr the pretense of themselv beg gay, but fact wh the tent of robbg him.

By McKney’s own nfsn, rroborated most tails by Henrson, McKney told Shepard that the two men were not gay and that he was gog to be robbed. Ed Andriki, The Associated their 36 hours of preparatn and travel, the story of the attack spread om lol to regnal to natnal media, unrsred by the reports om several of Shepard’s iends that he was gay and their fears that he had fallen victim to an anti-gay hate crime. After his effort to mount a “gay panic fense” was led out by Judge Barton Voight, McKney’s unsel, prosecutor Cal Recha and the Shepards agreed to a siar plea barga for nsecutive life sentenc and McKney’s agreement not to speak to the media about the se, a provisn he would repeatedly vlate later years.

IN WYOMG, SCENE OF FAMO GAY HATE CRIME AN UNLIKELY LGBTQ HAVEN

Wyomg legislators 1999 nsired a state-level hate crime bill that extend to anti-gay and -lbian crimal motivatns, but the measure failed the state Hoe on a 30-30 tie on two nsecutive days and has not sce been serly bated. They pistol whipped him wh a gun then tied him to a fence eezg ndns and set fire to him before leavg him to attack beme a e célèbre: precipated a natnal backlash agast hyper-macho culture and tac tolerance of homophobia. Jimenez has been acced of beg a revisnist, a cricism ually rerved for extreme rightwg iologu that ny the Holot, and labelled a homophobe.

When he started he was nvced that Matthew died at the hands of homophob, but he soon disvered that Matthew’s tragedy began long before the night he was killed.

But the town also has a number of mobile home parks at the edg, some more ndown than the eveng of 6 October 1998, Matthew went to the Firi bar, a lol hangout that was purportedly gay-iendly. So why has he put such time and effort to attemptg to prove that Matthew’s murr was not a hate crime, pecially as has seen him acced of beg an ally to the rightwg Christian fundamentalists who ny the realy of homophobia? “The view was that homophobic rednecks walked to a bar and saw an obvly gay man wh money and targeted him and beat him to ath for that reason, ” says Jimenez.

That plit the origal story of two strangers walkg to a bar and targetg Matthew – someone they did not know – bee he was gay. ”Wypijewski thks the reason some sectns of the gay muny are so angry about the Jimenez book is obv: “Jimenez has taken away their angel, and there is the reflexive sense that as a muny s sufferg was beg at last regnised. “Keepg Matthew as the poster boy of gay-hate crime and ignorg the full tragedy of his story has been the agenda of many gay-movement lears, ” he says.

Henson told me he believ that The Book of Matt is “nothg more than the tth” and that he was “never certa” that the murr was an anti-gay hate crime. Photograph: Evan Agosti/Getty Imag Photograph: Evan Agosti/Getty ImagOn 16 September the Casper Star Tribune, the lol paper Matthew’s home town, published an edorial claimg that an award Jimenez had recently received for his book “serv rejectn”, sayg: “From the begng there have been those who want to ignore the sadistic homophobic motiv of Shepard’s attackers and stead sist the matter was a dg al gone bad. But the mystery remas – not so much why Matthew died, but why the gay muny, after almost five s of mpaigng for equal rights, reli so fundamentally on the image of the perfect martyr to reprent the e.

In 1998, when Matthew Shepard, a gay stunt at the Universy of Wyomg, was beaten senselsly and left to die outsi town, garnerg ternatnal headl, I had one thought: Of urse that happened memori beme an anecdote, even after I beme an ternatnal rrponnt, verg plac like Afghanistan and Pakistan. Twenty years ago, Matthew Shepard was a "smart, funny" 21-year-old, no different than any other young man that was an "ordary kid who wanted to make the world a better place, " his parents October 1998, that all changed, when the openly gay llege stunt was abducted, beaten and tied to a fence life end a few days later, and wh me a wispread awarens of the dangers that members of the LGBTQ muny face every day. The homophobic btal killg also served as a talyst for progrs Ameri's laws and the two s that have passed, however, remas batable how far the untry has e sce the shock of that crime.

(MORE: 'Gay panic' fense still ed vlence s may be banned by new feral bill)McKney h Shepard about 20 tim the head and face wh the end of the pistol, Marsn said, before the two stole Shepard's sho, got their tck and drove back to town. Agast the gay muny until after he grew up to bee very terted ternatnal human rights, particularly women's rights the Middle East and Asia, and he studied polil science, said Marsn.

Members of the Wtboro Baptist Church protted the funeral, picketg wh anti-gay Fred Phelps and his parishners traveled om Kansas to Laramie for the funeral and trial, prottg wh brightly lored signs and spewg hatred.

McKney went to trial, and fense attorneys argued his vlent actns were "gay panic" -- a reactn to Shepard makg a sexual advance.

McKney has cled to speak to ABC News while Henrson did not immediately rpond to a requt for WashgtonShepard's murr shed a light on the spe of feral hate crime laws, which at the time did not clu sexual orientatn or genr gay activists monstrate the streets of North Hollywood to prott agast the ath of Wyomg Universy stunt Mathew Shepard, Oct.

"Beyond the feral hate crime law, the years sce Matthew Shepard's ath, among the most substantive legislative ws for the LGBTQ muny were the repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell 2010, so gay ary members n serve openly whout fear of beg dismissed, and the legalizatn of same-sex marriage across the untry 2015. Michael Loccisano/Getty Imag, FILEFor Judy Shepard, one of the bt signs of cultural progrs is seeg Gay Straight Alliance groups rampg up schools. In 1998, Matthew Shepard, a gay Universy of Wyomg stunt, was beaten, tied to a fence and left to die outsi Laramie, Wyomg.

The stagg is a llaboratn between two lol groups: Stud 271 Productns, a performance and visual arts pany head by lol actrs and director Kate Murray, and the Inty Youth Center, a center for lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr and qutng (LGBTQ) young people at 206 State St., Bghamton. Supreme Court led favor of marriage equaly; polls show 67 percent of Amerins support same sex marriag while 63 percent say gay upl should be allowed to adopt children. At the same time, Kfman noted, a recent terview wh the Fort Colls Coloradoan, “I thk we’re the middle of a moment Ameri where we are havg … a war wh ourselv about some of the ias, not only (about) homosexualy, but also about genr inty and relign and tn.