“No community wants to believe its people are capable of that kind of violence.”
— Jim Osborn

Hate crime buries western hospitality
Atmosphere of city changes following Shepard’s death
By Warren Epstein
KRT Campus

LARAMIE, Wyo. — Ranchers have dismantled the original stretch of fence where Matthew Shepard was strung up, beaten and left for dead almost four years ago.

There’s no memorial, only a “no trespassing” sign. But on a fence near the spot where Matthew was found, a string of purple beads blows in the wind.

“People have left flowers and all kinds of things,” said Albany County Sheriff’s Deputy Reggie Fluty, the first officer on the scene, the one who took Shepard’s broken scarecrow of a body to the hospital.

The openly gay college freshman died five days later on Oct. 12, 1998, victim of the most notorious anti-gay hate crime in U.S. history. His killers, Russell Henderson and Aaron McKinney, were sentenced to life in prison.

The media descended, took an unflattering snapshot of Laramie and left.

Now Laramie is back in the spotlight. “The Matthew Shepard Story” aired March 16 on NBC. “The Laramie Project” aired Saturday on HBO.

In the movies, viewers see Laramie residents such as Fluty struggling with the image of their town. After all, Shepard’s killers grew up in Laramie, a place that had been known for its Western hospitality.

“No community wants to believe its people are capable of that kind of violence,” said Laramie gay activist Jim Osborn, who was a friend of Shepard’s.

Since Shepard’s murder, the rest of the world has come to look at Laramie as a place of infamy. Like Waco. Like Jasper.

Laramie is a lot more than one incident. And it’s a lot more complicated than its national image might suggest.

Because it’s home to the University of Wyoming, the only four-year university in the state, visitors to this town of 29,000 are as likely to find a young woman with a nose ring as a rancher in a Stetson. For every down-home steakhouse, there’s a coffee bar with bulletin boards that advertise yoga classes and an upcoming showing of “The Vagina Monologues.”

But that’s not the Laramie that has stirred the media’s imagination. Most TV producers and magazine writers are more taken with the town’s Western atmosphere. Many fellow Laramie residents would cringe at her analogy. But you’ll hear similar sentiments expressed from the downtown cafes to the university lounges. They’re tired of it. Even before the town had a chance to grieve Shepard’s death or think about what it meant, the TV trucks were outside the courthouse broadcasting from a town they painted as a breeding ground for intolerance.

Osborn, who saw HBO’s “The Laramie Project,” believes it shows a much more diverse and accurate version of Laramie.

The film began as an unusual theater project. In spring 2000, a small troupe of artists from New York’s Tectonic Theater Project traveled to Laramie and talked to residents about an idea for an experimental work.

credits

TCU Daily Skiff © 2002