...to light their personal and cultural philosophies because it finally gives them a legitimate reason to do so. The beating and eventual death of Matthew Shepard could have gone unnoticed by the entire nation and just been a state wide issue had it not been for the fact that Matthew was gay. His being gay garnered national attention for the simple fact that he was gay. Laramie was known for it’s larger than average gay population, and that it didn’t bother most people. In the words of Marge Murray, “As far as the gay issue, I don’t give a damn one way or the other as long as they don’t bother me. And even if they did, I’d just say no thank you. And that’s the attitude of most of the Laramie population.” (Kaufman). So as you see most of the population in Laramie did not have too much concern with the gay population as long as they kept to themselves and weren’t coming onto people they shouldn’t. When people found out that the person who had been brutally beaten, was gay word spread fast and before the town knew it the whole nation was watching Laramie Wyoming. “Had this been a heterosexual these two boys decided to take out and rob, this never would have made the national news. Now my son is guilty before he’s even had a trial.” (Kaufman). This statement makes a great point. What would the outcome had been like if Matthew was not a homosexual? Most likely the whole event would have died out much sooner and would not have...
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...Conrad Jorge November 21, 2010 Identity after Traumatic Experiences Most of us have experienced or seen the effects of trauma, whether we experienced it first hand or though a shared experience that struck close to home. Trauma is unavoidable, the result of experiencing something that is too difficult to cope with. In “Selections from Losing Matt Shepard”, Beth Loffreda discusses the murder of Matthew Shepard in Laramie Wyoming and it’s traumatic effect on the university and community as a whole. She focuses heavily on the idea of identity, both that of the individual and the shared identity of the community after the traumatic event of his death. Trauma is of particular interest to Martha Stout, author of “When I Woke up on Tuesday, It was Friday”. She questions idea of sanity and whether we can truly call ourselves sane. She uses examples of her patients to discuss the effects of trauma on a person’s memory, feelings, and ultimately their identity. In “Into the Wild”, Jon Krakauer implies some of these same concepts with the story of Chris Candles and his travels in the Alaskan wilderness. Through out the story Chris seems to be searching for his own identity and seemingly trying to cope with damage and after effects of childhood trauma. Trauma as personally experienced or shared through a community causes a disconnection between individual and shared identity, significantly damaging and profoundly affecting our self and shared perceptions, feelings, and opinions of ourselves...
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...Betty Waltermire Crime and Criminology JUS-110 January 18, 2014 Sexuality and Hate Crimes A hate crime is an act of abusing an individual because they are convenient, vulnerable targets incapable of fighting back or will not fight back. People in this category may include homeless, gay men, lesbian women, transgender, transsexuals, and transvestites. These are specific crimes that drive a person by violence or a strong and selfish desire to severely injure or kill a person because of who they are or what they stand for. From coast to coast and throughout America’s heartland the murders of innocent people are occurring because they are different. They may or may not look any different than anyone else in your school, in college, at work or your neighbor. They are our sons, daughters, sisters, brothers, cousins, mothers, fathers that are gay, lesbian, transgender, transsexual that are being targeted, beaten severely, and killed. Anna Marie Lambert drove up the driveway to the rented farmhouse to visit her daughter and grandson. Inside the house she found the grisly, brutal, bloody scene and called the police. She took the grandson away from the bedroom and out to the kitchen away from the bodies. The male on the living room couch was identified as Phillip DeVine, 19. In the bedroom was the body of her daughter Lisa Lambert, 24, who was partly under the covers. The third...
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...a play written by Moises Kaufman and the members of Tectonic Theater Project. The play is based on the interviews of the citizens of Laramie about what’s happening in Laramie and their responses to the murder of Matthew. In addition to the various themes suggested by the play, the author wanted to present the varying perspectives toward homosexuality in the Laramie community at the time of Matthew’s death. The author also wanted to explore how these perspectives may have changed as the result of Matthew’s death. Even though the citizens of Laramie persisted that hate is not a value they practice, they still showed contrasting and puzzled views towards homosexuality. Some of the citizens of Laramie, together with Reverend Fred Phelps and his people, displayed extreme hatred towards homosexuals. Reverend Phelps and his people gave an emphasis that Matthew Shepard deserved to die, for he was a sinner and a disgrace to God. They displayed placards with the picture of Matthew burning in the eternal flames of hell. Reverend Phelps says, “If God doesn’t hate fags, why does he put’ em in hell?” (79). Reverend Phelps wanted to tell every member and supporter of the LGBT community that God hates them. The undeniable proof of God’s hate to them was how he didn’t welcome Matthew into heaven and sent him to hell instead. Doug Laws, together with other citizens, showed dislike toward homosexuality. Doug says, “A family is defined as one woman and one man and one child. That’s a family”...
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...about how the drama surrounding the Matthew Shepard incident was careful structured by the media from start to finish, in order to maximize its newsworthiness and profits. For example, Washington Post, New York Times, and Los Angeles Times, all did not post any articles involving the Matthew Shepard case, until October 10, 1998, which was three days after he was discovered. Furthermore, with little information from the Sheriff of Laramie involving the Shepard case, reporters instantly constructed the case around the anti-gay aspect and correlated the scarecrow image to the crucifix symbol, which created attention and attracted viewers. The media transformed Matthew Shepard into a national symbol for hate crimes and anti-gay violence. The drama surrounding Shepard’s case would ultimately lead the story and it will end with the trail of McKinney and Henderson. The trail of McKinney and Henderson was necessary to put an end to the story, in order to punish those responsible for the crimes and regain social order. In my analysis I found the section, Restoring Social Order, to be most interesting. This section talks about how the Matthew Shepard case created such a disruption to social and moral order, in order to restore it those accountable must be punished. According to the essay, a reporter named Phil Curtis from The Advocate stated, “the trial delivered an emotionally satisfying vindication for Shepard’s death and brought closure to the Shepard family and to the public, who had...
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...character's full views about the murder of Matthew Shepard, and homosexuality in general. Juxtaposition is often used within a monologue to show the discrepancies that some people in the town feel about the Matthew Shepard incident. An example would be, “Moment: One of Ours.” In the previous moment, Harry Woods, and Matt Galloway give emotional interviews about all the support people had shown for Matt at the homecoming parade. However, this is all juxtaposed by Sherry Johnson’s monologue in the next moment, where she goes on to say, “A lot of it is my feeling that the media is portraying Matthew Shepard as a saint, and making kim a martyr. And I don’t think he was.” She then misinterprets facts about Matthew to justify her feelings about him. “It’s scary. You know about his character and spreading AIDS and a few other things, you know, being the kind of person that he was. He was, he was just...
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...Bethany L. Coderre Theater-3 Ms. Kewley Hate Crimes After reading “The Laramie Project” your left with so many questions, ideas and emotions. The play is a series of interviews (reenacted exactly as they happened) to give the audience facts and true statements so that they can form there own opinion. The play takes place in Laramie Wyoming, after the “hate crime” that left 21 year old Matthew Shepard fighting for his life that ended soon after all because the fact that he was gay. Hate is a feeling and hate crime is acting on that hatred, but what exactly is a “hate crime”? What makes it so different from any other crime? Isn't all crime hate crime? “People would like to think that what happened to Matthew was an exception to the rule, but it was an extreme version of what happens in our schools on a daily basis.” (Laramie Project,47) This quote shows how people are going through hate on a daily basis and it sucks that the only way to get peoples attention was for something as tragic as Matthew Shepard story. The term ghate crimeh was given the name in the 1980's by journalists that were trying to describe a number of incidents directed towards Jews, Asians and African Americans. The federal Beureo of investigations defines hate crime as ga criminal offense committed against a person, property, or society that is motivated, in whole or in part, by the offender's bias against a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, or ethnicity/national...
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...THE LARAMIE PROJECT On Thursday February 24 the students of went to watch 'The Laramie Project', which was located in in the Jetpack. Laramie is about a small town, a gay college student; Matthew Sheppard, who was found tied to a fence after being brutally beaten and left there to die. The play talks about the death of Matthew, the parents, and the trial. The students of Victoria Park said " the play was very touching and the acting of the play was astonishing". The play was well done, the lighting, sound effects, acting, and costumes was spectacular. But, the play could've been even better by making the setting more clear. The students remarked " we couldn't understand the beginning very well. Until it got to the middle of the play it was clear to us." There was one scene in the play that caught everyone's attention. It was when Matthew Sheppard's killers Aaron James McKinney and Russel Arthur Henderson were explaining how they killed Matthew. Matthew Sheppard was in a bar and he got drunk. He asked Aaron and Russel for a ride, they gave him one. In the car Matthew was talking to Aaron and was going up his leg, that's when Aaron got mad at beat him brutally. They both tied Matthew against a fence and beat him even more, they left him there to die. The acting that was done for Aaron James McKinney was done very well. It was like the actress was actually Aaron because it sounded and looked so real. The vocal clarity was excellent, the actress was talking so clear and loud...
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...Hate Crimes COM/172 August 5, 2014 Hate Crimes The term “hate crime” may seem new, given the attention it has received in the past several years, these types of offenses have been around for many years. Ever since and before the 1964 Civil Rights Act, people have been victims of crimes and perpetrators have committed those crimes against others based mainly or solely on the victim being “different” in one respect or another from the perpetrator. With many reasons why people commit crimes against other people, the burden of proof to prove a hate crime has become easier with the wording of newer laws directed at “hate crimes.” What is the main reason hate crimes are committed? Simply because of a different race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, or other minority group status as the motivation for perpetrating those crimes against people. The world is full of hate. What makes someone hate someone else enough to kill or harm another human being? Hate crimes are criminal actions intended to harm or intimidate people because of their race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, or other minority group status. They can also be referred to as bias crimes. Hate crimes have been going on in the world for a long time. Jesus was crucified by the Romans because of religious reasons they did not agree with. Was the crucifixion of Jesus the root of hate crimes going on in our society? There is no way to say what really was the actual root of hate crimes, but there are a...
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...aspects of a person in which he or she has no control over and cannot change, such as gender, sexuality, and race. Then there is natural identity, which is assembled by discourses and experiences throughout life. Natural identity is relational and constructed based on one’s own personal beliefs and values, as opposed to one’s fixed identity, which is based on characteristics and culture. Unfortunately, individuals let the unchangeable aspects of their identity limit them from creating their own unique identity. This can be due to societal views that expect an individual conform to the public image associated with his or her gender, race, and sexuality. “Losing Matt Shepard” by Beth Loffreda explores what she calls “The Limits of Identification”, and how these limits may have impacted the anti-gay murder of Matt Shepard. Similarly, “The Naked Citadel” by Susan Faludi could also be described as a text centrally concerned with the limits of identification, by exposing a connection between the image that men are expected to maintain by the general public and the behavior of the cadets in the Citadel. A community has the power to define an individual’s role based on gender, sexuality, or race, ultimately limiting his or her identity. The structure of every community is different, meaning that an individual’s role will differ and he or she learns this through experiences or traditions. However, these limits can lead to identity crises once individuals realize that societal views had been...
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...Matthew Shepard’s Story movie was so horrifying. To think that human beings could do such an awful and hurtful thing to a fellow person just because they are different is scary. Occurrences like these happen everyday to all sorts of people. Matthew was hated against just because he was open about his sexual preference. He was tied to a tree, beaten, and was left in the freezing weather, begging for his life. Knowing that this just happened 10 years ago is a frightening thought. After so many years of learning how to be equal with other races and religions it's an awful thought that we still see people as different and it still scares us. What happen to Matthew was unfair. Everyone should treat each other equal. America is supposed to be the...
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...another's race, color, religion or national origin, while participating in a federally protected activity, such as voting or going to school, willfully injures or attempts to injure, intimidates or attempts to intimidate or interfere with them(18 USC § 245, n.d.). In 1994 the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act was passed where in Section 280003(a) a hate crime is defined where a person intentionally selects a victim, or a property crime, to commit a crime because of race, color, religion, national origin, ethnicity, gender, disability, sexual orientation, or homeless status of the victim (28 USC § 994, 1994). The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, was signed by President Obama on October 28, 2009 as a rider to the National Defense Authorization Act for 2010 (H.R. 2647) as a result to the murders of Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr., expanding the 1969 United States federal hate-crime law to include crimes motivated by a victim's race, sexual orientation, gender identity, actual or perceived gender, or disability (Weiner, 2010). As we can see, hate crimes are felonies but they are still committed every day, and sociologists continue to study what drives individuals to commit such crimes and find a way to minimize them. We read about them in the newspapers and we hear about them in the six o'clock news - a young gay man was attacked as he left a night club, or a Latino male was beaten up while waiting on a corner. These unfortunate...
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...much better things have become because of those who lost their lives for the pursuit of happiness. In this essay I will talk about the traumatic events that transpired and how they slowly led to Hate Crime Legislation. During Bill Clinton’s presidency, many painfully gruesome acts of gay bashing occurred. And due to the media’s interest in Clinton’s efforts to end the ban on gays and lesbians in the U.S. military, news of the bashings were heavily publicized. In December 31, 1993, a twenty-one year old trans man was killed. Brandon was killed when his rapists John Lotter and Tom Nissen attempted to make sure Brandon did not testify against them for the raping him when they found out that Brandon was born biologically female. In 1998 Matthew shepherd was brutally pistol-whipped, tortured and tied to a fence to die. When he was found he had experienced severe brainstem damage. This damage affected his ability to regulate body temperature, heart rate, and other vital functions. Due to his many lacerations and fractures his injuries were deemed too severe for doctors to operate. He never regained consciousness and remained on life support until he eventually died. Due to this Clinton’s attempt to the addition of lesbians and gays to the hate crimes bill was defeated in Congress. One year later, Billy Jack Gaither was brutally beaten to death. His throat was cut and his body bashed with an ax handle before he was thrown on top of a pile of tires and set on fire. All because he...
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...The Challenge of Organizational Communication The United States faces many threats and tragedies on a day-to-day basis. Many of those horrific events are occurrences that have helped mold this country for the better. The communication domains considered in Chapter 1: The Challenge of Organizational Communication consist of Rhetorical, Semiotic, Phenomenological, Cybernetic, Sociopsychological, Sociocultural and Critical devices. These domains approach the organizational issues that arose in events, such as, the Mass Shooting that took place at Emanuel A.M.E. Church in Charleston, South Carolina. These different lenses help us better understand the complexity of the organizational communication processes. (Miller 13) One of the seven domains include the Rhetorical approach. The Rhetorical approach, according to Katherine Miller, Professor at Arizona State University, is "the practical art of discourse” which, in organizational context means "Considering the communication strategies of organizational leaders during times of crisis.”(Miller 14) The event that took place that evening was instantaneously thrown into the media circuit. Influential figures from across the world began expressing their grief by taking to verbal interviews, social media, as well as holding press conferences . Public Political leaders such as President Barack Obama, Governor Nikki Haley, Charleston Mayor Joseph P. Riley, Jr., became vessels for the Charleston community . President Obama was...
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...Matthew Wilson was just an average kid at the age of 13. He had always been on the A/B honor roll, he listened to his parents, and he was brave for a 7th grader. He was quiet and didn't have many friends. He had a loving mother, a father who was, at the time, in the military, and a dog named Buddie, who was pretty much his only friend. Matthew lived in Seattle, Washington, where he went to Inman Elementary School. He was often un-noticed at school because he didn’t like to talk, but he preferred to be unbothered by people. His teachers didn't have anything against Matthew, all of them except for Mrs. Payton, his science teacher. Matt never understood why she didn't like him, but he disregarded it with hope that she'll change her mind about him. The morning Matthew's mother had declared that they were moving, he was upset about it. He had lived in the same house his entire life. Eventually, he settled down and started packing. A week later, they were fully un-loaded at their new home. It was a nice house for the most part, but there was something about the house that Matthew found odd. Perhaps the 2 foot tall door in the basement that led to the backyard. Buddie always barked at it around 10:00 pm. Also, it could've been the ring...
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