Laramie Project: Live and Let Live

To me the split in opinion regarding Matthew Shepards death is not surprising. The first group of individuals seem to be biased against homosexuality and view Shepards death as a result of his homosexual lifestyle.

Jedadiah Schultz feels troubled discussing the incident. Being raised under the idea that homosexuality is wrong, he expresses that despite his bias he doesn't hate gay people and he wouldn't get in their way as he continues on. Aaron Kreifels condemns the behavior of the gay people and doesn't feel sympathy for the gay community after the murder. Conrad Miller would compare homosexuals to animals to his kids while Murdock Cooper partially blames Shepard for the incident. Zackie Salmon fears for her life as a lesbian and wouldn't want to be in public with her partner.

Laramie reminds me of a small town I lived in for a few years. It was so much smaller than Laramie that there was only one known gay person in our school. It was a good school and of course very accepting and open minded unlike Laramie, and yet there was still a sense of disparity. People would look at him a little different and would sometimes stare. I wonder if that town I was in near western NY and Laramie have this view towards homosexuals since they are not seen as the norm. When I moved there people would give me the same looks as an outsider. Perhaps the small towns lack of diversity leaves them uninformed of different people.