The Laramie Project

After reading The Laramie Project, I can see how the immense amount of sensationalism used by the reporters may seem terrible at first to most of the people in the town. Many who were interviewed complained about the amount of reporters that flooded in to see the aftermath of a tragedy like this. I understand that they could feel extremely overwhelmed and often times might have felt like they wanted every reporter to leave, for good. But at the end of the day, I believe that it was due to the sensationalism and massive amounts of press that Matt Shepard's story received that has truly altered our society and the views it has on harassment and gender-based issues.

Matt Shepard's death was extremely upsetting and appalling to hear about for many people throughout the country. His story alone caused an uproar about equal rights for the gays or lesbians in America and even if not that, it challenged people to stop the harassment that was often instigated because of a gender-related topic. I believe that Matt Shepard's story and the sensationalism that helped to tell it truly made an impact of our society in America. I know that in many places most people are tolerant, if not accepting towards homosexuals at this time and I truly believe that is partially because of this story.

Homosexuality is often times thought of as a "scary" or "awkward" subject but this play only further implies the importance of getting past those feelings and stopping the effects of those feelings like harassment or violence. I think that Shepard's story shows the horrifying repercussions that being raised to shut out others that are different than you can cause. The people in this town have more of a "don't ask, don't tell" way of dealing with things rather than being accepting of others in their community. I think that this attitude was completely turned around after the event of Matt's death because they all realized what an impact their attitudes had on the kids in that town.

Overall, I believe that the story of Matt Shepard's death and the sensationalism behind the news stories had an immense impact on the hearts of many Americans and challenged people to reflect on how they acted upon their opinions of gender issues in the past. I think the sensationalism used by reporters at the time further developed Matt's story and only made it that much more important.