“The Laramie Project” is a story about a group young people who created a play about events in Laramie, Wyoming. Interviews were conducted by the group about Matthew Shepard’s murder. Matthew was a gay student who had sexually assaulted two straight teens at a bar. Matthew was then taken by these teenagers and tied to a tree. They then beat him into unconsciousness, and finally killed him. I was both disappointed and hopeful by the human actions.

I was saddened by the fact that no one wanted to discuss the town shootings. It wasn’t because they were grieving, but because they didn’t want being bothered. This was quite strange to me. This is your chance for representation of yourself and your locality. But people were more upset by the attention than they were about the actual murder. Their priorities really weren’t straight. They were not unwilling to talk about the matter. This was because they didn’t want anyone to blame their small town of Laramie for the homophobic mentality. This cold-shoulder approach is still prevalent in our society today. People won’t talk about the real issues like police brutality and queer individuals’ troubles. These issues deserve to be discussed in the public spotlight. This country would not be able to move forward if everyone thought the same thing. The film’s main theme was the excessive victim shaming. I found it shocking that some people said Matthew Shepard was to blame, that he had been “asking.” This is unacceptable especially given today’s standards. People in the film talked about Matthew being gay and having been sexually harassed by two boys. Or that Matthew was “flaunting his gayness.” This is worse than saying Matthew is a saint for having HIV. It is almost like saying that Matthew is a bad person for having been exposed to smoking. It is clear that the Laramie residents were not sympathetic to Matthew’s horrific murder. Victim blaming is not limited to hate crimes. This is also evident in contemporary debates about what women should wear to their bodies. Brock Turner, a Stanford Rapist who had raped a woman unconscious, was the latest example. Many people are still defending his actions with comments like “she shouldn’t be drunk”. Oder Brock Turner could have avoided raping her, which is even better! Maybe Henderson or McKinney did not torture Matthew Shepard to get their attention! Sometimes, I am baffled by the ignorance of certain people.

But not all scenes in “The Laramie Project”, however, were negative. I was encouraged by a few scenes. I was pleased to see the section gaining more support during the parade in the town. It showed me that there were still people in the town willing to stand up for Matthew, even if others might see them as LGBTQ supporters. You can only imagine what support such a service could receive in other parts if it was able to draw a crowd in Laramie. It was unfortunate, but it was something I found to be a shame. To convince people that homosexuality wasn’t so bad, it took the murder of a young man. They did eventually come together, and that is what I think really matters.

Overall, “The Laramie Project”, I thought was a great film. The film’s style was very neat, as it was based on an interview for controversial plays. I was initially confused by the documentary’s real-time nature. It was very moving at times and made me feel even more for the LGBTQ community. It can be difficult to come out in rural areas where there are so many close-minded people. Although I believe the world has much to do before equality is possible for everyone, I believe we are moving in the right direction.