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!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnOJgDW0gPI
ReplyDelete"Imagine A World wher Bring Gay was Normal and Being World be the Minority"
It's video about if the world we live in where it was normal to be gay and being straight was seen as wrong. It's was interesting to watch because it gives us a point of view if life was different. It shows the views on how homosexuals are seen and how kids who do discover themselves faced through. They get bullied and punished by the people around them just because of who they like. And towards the end you see what their fate leads to when they can't take it anymore.
Over all i think it was well even though towards the end it was a bit unclear, but it was well shown how in different societies homosexuality is taken differently but using the view as if being straight was wrong and being gay was normal.
http://www.hrc.org/laws-and-legislation/federal-laws/matthew-shepard-and-james-byrd-jr.-hate-crimes-prevention-act
ReplyDeleteThis is a document about the Hate Crime Prevention Act that was proposed and more so enforced after the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd cases. It talks about how it got started and how it was passed. what i really liked that they included was who endorsed the legislation. "More than 300 law enforcement, civil rights, civic and religious organizations..." I found it really interesting to see that religious organizations were pushing the act. Of course they wouldn't want innocent people dying but the fact that the partial motive behind the act was a hate crime against a gay man. So i guess unlike the Priest and religious leaders in Laramie, these religious groups fought for rights no matter what kind of person was being targeted.
http://www.americanthinker.com/2013/10/how_matthew_shepard_prefigured_trayvon_martin.html
ReplyDeleteJack Cashill wrote this article based on the Trayvon martin case and Matthew Shepard and how they both had something in common. Cashill sates that both boys were just two innocent souls that were just in the wrong place at the wrong time basically. both Martin and Shepard are both like poster boys because of the Racial profiling and for gay rights. Cashill goes on to say that "Matthew Shepard is to gay rights what Emmett Till was to the civil rights movement." And "Trayvon Martin is Our Emmett Till; Our Jury Selection Process Is No Better Now That It Was In 1955," was the head line for Daily Kos article.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11831556
In London a man and women are in jail for brutally beating a gay man to death. the man was named Ian Baynham and was 62 years old. Baynham was knocked down when Joel Alexander,20, hit him with a punch to his head right after Ruby Thomas,19, scream abusive words at him for being gay. Baynham died 18 days after the attack due to brain damage. Thomas and Alexander were convicted with manslaughter after the re-trail. in another case Jody,24 another gay man, was punched and kicked to death by two men from London. Jody's beaten was so bad that the police had to identify him from his fingerprints. Sheri Dobrowski the mother of Jody goes on to say that baynham death happened on the 4 year anniversary of her son death.
The amount of homophobic case has increased so much throughout the years in 2005/6 there were only 600 cases it increased more through time. in 2008/9 there were 1,013 cases that's so unbelievable.
http://www.matthewshepard.jeff-reys.com/
ReplyDeleteIn this article I found it interesting that one of the attackers Aaron McKinley states that he just snapped because Matthew tried to come on to him. He was reminded of the times that he was sexually assaulted at such a young age. Although i do not believe that Matthew approached those guys based on the story we are reading what the bartender said. Mathews character doesn't seem like it would allow him to just come on to them. I believe now after reading this posting that if that did happen to McKinley that maybe he just knew that Matthew was gay and he was high and drunk "maybe" and he was reminded of his prior attacks as a kid and just took it out on Matthew. It still doesnt give him an excuse and he should not have involved his friend either.
http://vimeo.com/74805179
ReplyDeleteThis video i feel is really good information because it says that if Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson was equally culpable in the murder of Matthew Shepard. I found out that one of them (Russell Henderson) has the same charge as Aaron Mckinney when that Aaron was the one to do more to Shepard and that Russell try to stop Aaron and he hit Russell in the face. i still feel that if Russell wanted to stop he should of never went along with Aaron at first to do something to Matthew. It also says that Aaron had a trail and Russell did not and he had the same chargers as Aaron.
http://www.apa.org/helpcenter/sexual-orientation.aspx
ReplyDeleteI feel that a lot of people should know the meaning of sexual orientation and being lesbian or gay or bisexual and even the problems a person has to face with being gay and this shows us a deeper meaning of homosexuality and i feel everyone should read this.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/14/matthew-shepard-murder-wyoming-book
ReplyDeleteThis article is about how an investigative journalist Stephen Jimenez wrote a book that challenges the assumptions made in the Matthew Shepard case. Jimenez believes that being gay was not a big factor in the case he even agrues tat it may not ave been a factor at all. Jimenez points out matthews use of drugs alcohol and especial his use of crystal meth. People were outraged with Jimenez's book because they felt as if he was betraying the gay community because Jimenez is gay.
There is a lot of issues going on in schools where people get bully because they are gay. This gives us people that was bully and what happen because they was and how young they was and what they did. i feel that its a deeper meaning on why kids get bully because they are gay. There are reasons why some people don't like gay people because maybe something happen to them before to make them hate.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/gender-and-schooling/201009/homophobia-suicide-wake-call-parents-and-educators
http://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=277685
ReplyDeleteThere has been new details in the Matthew Shepard's murder that i just can't seem to wrap my head around it. Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson supposedly were on drugs and seemed to have had sex with Matthew before the incident . That still doesn't give any excuse to what they did to him. For example "The saddest part of this whole case was at Matthew's funeral, when they, these people, refused to let Matthew be buried with dignity," said Rerucha. "I never saw people that could hate so much."
how do we evaluate the truth of statements made about the murderers? who has made these claims?
Deletehttp://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/remarks-president-reception-commemorating-enactment-matthew-shepard-and-james-byrd-
ReplyDeleteI decided to write about the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act. The Hate Crimes Prevention act was established in october 2009. it was signed by President Barack Obama. I found an article that shared the remarks by the President at Reception Commemorating the Enactment of the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act.
The President shared some important things that I totally agree with.
"You understood that we must stand against crimes that are meant not only to break bones, but to break spirits -- not only to inflict harm, but to instill fear." (President Obama).
I agree with what he said because after both Matthew and James were brutally killed fear definitely increased in the gay community and for African Americans. Therefore, I am glad that The Hate Crimes Prevention Act was established. For it seems like the killers are judged and sentenced more precisely.
beautiful quote from Obama
Deletehttp://www.today.com/id/33074488/#.UmfsDdLevxo
ReplyDeleteAlthough there are many claims of motives for this hate crime such as drug abuse, the murder of Mathew Larime WAS a hate crime. In an intereview McKinney says “If I could go back and not be the one who killed him, I would,” He IMPLIES that he personally would not have been the one who killed him. Most likely because he is in jail for life. This shows he still would want Mathew to be dead because he is gay. McKinney is definately against homosexuality.
“The night I did it, I did have hatred for homosexuals,” McKinney is quoted as saying. He goes on, according to the script, to say that he still dislikes gays and that his perceptions about Shepard’s sex life bolstered his belief that the killing was justified.
http://www.matthewsplace.com/personal-story/gay-coming-out-story-laramie-project/
ReplyDeleteThis site is showing someone else's story about being gay. She tells her story about how she ended up coming out of the closet and telling her mother. She didn't know what to expect because she had already heard all the stories of gay people being judged and beaten to death along with Matthew Shepard's case. For instance she says "All these terrible things helped to build the fire of terror that was growing inside of me." This goes to show that people who are gay should not have to walk around with second thoughts or fear because of what other people have to say. No one deserves that. Matthew Shepard's story is related to this young girls story because she had a hard time being able to show her pride and didn't want anyone to look at her any different.
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Deletehttp://www.matthewsplace.com/personal-story/holding-on-2/
ReplyDeleteThis article shows a young individuals story about being a transvestite. He went through torture because no one accepted him. This has affected this young individuals life because he is traumatized by the lifestyle he's been living. He says "I felt like a man trapped in a women’s body, and I’ve went through so much, and the only support I have is the community on YouTube and Facebook." This is horrifying to know that he is struggling because no one supports him. It actually is surprising to me that he is being as strong as he possibly can be because at this point I would personally go crazy since his own family isn't supporting him at all.
this is an important topic--how can we relate it to the play and story we are discussing?
Deletehttp://archive.org/details/TheMatthewShepardMurder-JudgeBartonVoigtInterviewPart1
ReplyDeleteThis is a link that contains an interview done between Judge Barton Voigt, judge in Aarron McKinney's case, and Wyoming historian Mark Junge. The interview contains information about the pre-trial, strategies of the prosecutor, why they used such strategies, ect.
It would help to give the class more information about what the judge reveals--for example that the prosecuting and defense attorneys didn't get along and made the case more difficult to try!
Deletehttp://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=277685&page=1
ReplyDeleteNEW INFO ON THE CASE!
I found this article to be very interesting.It tells you background about Matthew and both his killers which were not included in the movie we watched in class.It state that this isnt the first inicident Matthew have expericenced that he had been raped and beaten before he started college and that had caused him to suffer from depression and panic attacks.Also that Mckinney was a drug abuser and the gun he hit Matthew with he was suppose to trade for drugs ; Mckinney's original plan that night was to rob a drug lord but he seen Matthew as an easier target.Mckinney blames his child hood because he was abused by an male as an motivation to what he did to Matthew.Something interesting i found out was that Mckinney seemed to have a secret sex life bisexual.It was told that he had a threesum with o'connorl.His girlfriend also believed he was bisexual too.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/14/matthew-shepard-murder-wyoming-book
ReplyDeleteThis article was about alot from how Matthew was before this happened, who did this to him, how the killers reactions were in court and so on. The part that interest me most was the part about how some people don't believe that this tragedy happened due to matthew being gay. McKinney was planning on stealing a delivery of meth that Matthew had coming down from Denver. McKinney plan was to just beat the information out of him and thats all but it clearly winded up being way more than he had planned.
Celene. Beard
http://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=277685&page=6
ReplyDeleteThis is a abc news article basically describing the Mathew Sherpard story. It talks about a little bit about everything, the trial, if it was a hate crime or something else that triggers McKinney and Henderson to kill Mathew. It also talks about different points of view certain people had about the case. I found this article pretty interesting because it has a bit of everything and tells us what McKinney and Henderson had to say about the case. From what I read, it seems like the one that had more of a motive to kill Mathew was McKinney. In the article Henderson talks about how McKinney was the one hitting Mathew and he tried to make him stop but he wouldn’t. Later on in the article he says how he feels sorry and guilty because even though he didn’t take much action in beating Mathew up he didn’t stop McKinney. So to me his apology didn’t seem sincere at all. As to McKinney, he states that all he wanted to do was rob him and beat him up a little; and wasn’t a hate crime. A lot of people disagree and say he was motivated to kill him because he was gay , but in the article there are some type of evidences showing that it could have involve the drugs that he was on. Dr.Rick, Rawson said he did some research and found out that the drug (meth) McKinney use to take had some effects; “the drug can trigger episodes of violent behavior. In the first weeks after you've stopped using it, the kinds of triggers that can set off an episode are completely unpredictable. It can be: you say a word with the wrong inflection; you touch someone on the shoulder. It's completely unpredictable as to what will set somebody off.” In my opinion there can be a possibility that it did have something to do with the drugs but also involve hate towards gay people. But overall it doesn’t justify what he did to Mathew and its good that he got a life sentence. The Mathew sherpard case made many people open up their eyes and realize that everyone should be treated as equal and gay/lesbians/bisexual are human beings and shouldn’t be bullied by that.
not relevant to the asignment but for anybody who DID NOT see the film in class i found it on youtube in its entirety here is the URL:
ReplyDeletehttp://youtu.be/u1qiTmF0p4A
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ReplyDeletehttp://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/09/23/book-claims-matthew-shepard-murdered-for-reasons-far-more-complicated-than/
ReplyDeleteThis article talks about "The book of Matt" written by Stephen Jimenez. Jimenez says that he wrote this book to show that the "gay panic" was false evidence in his eyes. But it also mentions that later on Aaron McKinney liked having intercourse with gay guys and wasn't unfamiliar with homosexuality. Another thing that's been said by McKinney is that they were on meth which is what motivated them to commit this murder. It could be that they were on meth but from this point there is a large number of information that is being revealed but who knows what who is telling the truth and what actually happened and the motive behind it. This article is even more reliable to me because it quotes what McKinney and Henderson said themselves.
http://abcnews.go.com/Archives/video/abc-archives-ntba2252a-14742533
ReplyDeletefound this article on the Matthew Shepherd story from 1998. i found it shocking because it was showing people protesting gay lifestyle at Mathews funeral. i was amazed at the audacity of the protesters, even in the face of such a violent act they feel its appropriate to bring their BS to a funeral. no respect what-so-ever. what about those people? were exactly is their morale compass pointing because clearly they don't think a funeral procession is deserving of any respect or privacy for that matter.