Homework in Preparation for First Laramie Essay due Monday November 4

Complete your  600 word essay in which you show how The Laramie Project  is a play about 1) reason, 2) passion (or compassion), 3) justice and 4) revenge (or vengeance).  

Choose one of the characters to represent EACH of these qualities and explain why they are a good representative for this quality.  It might be useful to get a really good dictionary definition of each of the qualities.  We will start drafting this essay on Wednesday October 30.  You will bring first drafts to class October 31.

Blog #6: Researching Gay Experience in the 1950's and '60's: Post Sunday evening Nov 3.

Conditions for Gays in America in the 1950's and '60's

Your blog assignment here, discussion of which will begin next week, is to find your own specific source of information and write a summary of what you have found, why it is important.  Be be sure to include link to article or video.

This assignment will help us begin discussion for your final research project on the history of gay rights in America.

You should be looking for key moments where rights of homosexuals were challenged, abused, fought for.  An example in NYC would be the Stonewall Rebellion in Greenwich Village in 1969 where gay protesters were beaten and arrested; in California the story of Harvey Milk, made into a film, shows the fight for recognition and equality that took place. Milk was the first openly gay person to be elected to public office in the U.S. in the 1970's.


Here is an excerpt from Oberlin College's LGBT History Website that shows how difficult it was to be gay because that orientation was considered a mental illness:

Especially in the late 1950s and early 1960s, many male narrators recalled being so disturbed by their attractions to other men that they sought psychological help. Mental health professionals, as well as the general public, considered homosexuality to be a mental illness at the time, and it was listed as such by the American Psychiatric Association in their Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Psychiatric Disorders.

The website goes on to give cases of individuals who testify that they did not want to be gay and tried to go through conversion therapy; others became extremely depressed.  The general campus consensus at Oberlin at that time was that "homosexuals were “sick, unnatural, [and] perverted,”  recalled one student of that era.

Finally, this is not a particularly authoritative source but I like this summary of the situation in the 50's to the 70's from yahoo.answers.com

No, no one could be openly gay to their friends let alone in public, even into the 1970s. But in the 1950s, people had to hide their homosexuality because they could get fired from a job. They had gay bars but these places were raided by the police just because they were there, and people were arrested. Being gay was illegal in a lot of states and there were no laws to protect them. They were considered mentally disturbed, they had to hide their sexuality and frequently got married and pretended to be straight just to be accepted in the community. They got attacked and beaten up regularly. It was considered shameful to be homosexual and Lesbian and people spent their lives hiding it.  (Yahoo Answers.com)

Blog #5:Laramie Research--Post What you Find Here--due Monday (Sunday night)

I would like you to research the story of Matthew Shepard, the trial of his murderers, and interviews that have taken place since the trial and incarceration of Henderson and McKinney--this information will help you with your essays.

You may also research the Hate Crime Law that Obama signed and possibly cases where that law was invoked.  Other cases of homophobia and abuse of gays in college or elsewhere will also be relevant.

So go forth and find good things to share: blog rules--put link to source, summarize what you found and why it is interesting--quote!

Finally, check out Course Documents for the upcoming Laramie essay which will be graded by Prof. Rizzieri and Prof. Van Slyck--a joint assignment!