Matthew Shepard's Fight Against Hate Crimes

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Introduction: Matthew Shepard was a college student who was very open about gay rights. On October 6, 1998 in Laramie,Wyoming, Shepard was found beaten and hung on a fence, to which you could have mistaken him as a scarecrow. A cyclist found him and took Shepard to the nearest hospital. Sadly Shepard was confirmed dead just a few hours later by the doctors. The story was publicized and many people began to show their support for Shepard, such as many Gay rights activist, Celebrities, Even local churches showed support despite him being gay. Shepard's murder became one of the most significant hate crimes in history. Also was a major influence for the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crime Prevention Act signed by President Obama in 2009. …show more content…

In my opinion, this was one of the best things you could have done beside protesting, before “President Barack Obama signed the Hate Crime Prevention act” (Worthen Hate Crime and The Shepard-Byrd Act). Bruce Shenitz states in his article, “Tectonic Theater Project, founded by Moises Kaufman, created a play named the Laramie Project to spread the word about the murder of Matthew Shepard. They interviewed over half the town to make the play as real as it could be so that anyone watching could make a connection gay or not” (71). When Shenitz said people made a connection with the play even though they weren’t even gay really got to me. I feel the exact same way as I continued to research Matthew. I ask myself questions like what if I was in the same situation and would the outcome of the world's reaction would be the same even though i’m not gay? Another way of helping us against the fight of hate is to ask those who actually committed the crimes on what was their motive. “One of the murders, Russell Henderson, wasn't allowed to speak to the media. On the other hand Aaron McKinney was able to and for their second play Kaufman and his team got to interview him and put it in their play” (Shenitz 73). Getting to know their reasoning is a step we have to take. No matter what we …show more content…

Most of them are religious believers who believe being gay is punishable by their invisible deity. Omowale Akintunde noted, “ Christianity has been very popular for centuries and most could even see it as a cultural norm” (50). For someone as myself who was born with both of their parents being christians and expect you not to question their beliefs can be hard. To expect me to believe certain things that their “God” think is right isn’t what they should have expected. The problem is that even though most disagree with their beliefs they still try to shove their ideals of right and wrong into someone's head. The nation is overwhelmingly Christian and because of that they have power to enforce their beliefs into cultural practice and governmental law (Akintunde 49). Akintunde made a great point because it wasn’t even until recently that we were allowed to have same-sex marriages in the United States. There is no doubt in my mind, religion plays a major role in people who are against homophobia. Churches continue to protest many productions of the Laramie Project around the country ( Shenitz 73-74). Protesting at funerals and plays shouldn't be done and it isn’t respectable. There is a very low chance of convincing every religious believer that what they are doing you

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