Defining Laramie

If you drive down the main street of Laramie, Wyoming you will pass a sign that reads “HATE IS NOT A LARAMIE VALUE.” This sign would confuse someone unfamiliar with the history of the town of Laramie, but for those who are familiar, the sign evokes horrible memories and a message to contemplate. According to Peter O’Dowd of NPR, on October 12, 1998 Matthew Shepard, a gay college student died after being brutally beaten by two Laramie residents. Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson left a local bar with Shepard and proceeded to rob him, tie him to wooden fence, and strike him in the head eighteen times with a handgun before leaving him to die. He was found the next morning and rushed to the hospital where he died five days later.

After this horrific incident, the residents of Laramie began to question the role the town of Laramie had in the murder. In the film The Laramie Project, by Moisés Kaufman, one of the residents being interviewed raised the question of “Is Laramie actually that kind of a town?” As much as the other interviewees tried to deny that the town itself had any responsibility in this case, the validity of their arguments is questioned. After all, the murder happened in the town, by local residents. For everyone unfamiliar with Laramie, Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson have become the town’s core representations, which projects the mentality that Laramie is in fact, “that kind of town.”

Countless residents interviewed in The Laramie Project openly expressed their anti-gay feelings during their interviews. Resident, Sherry Johnson downplayed the severity of the Matthew Shepard’s murder by comparing it to the recent death of a highway worker that was killed by a drunk driver. She did not understand why Matthew was receiving significantly only more attention than the highway worker that happened to be her friend. She believed he was getting more attention because he was gay and did not understand why the murder was bring called a hate crime. Her homophobic statements shocked the listener due their sincerity and harshness that seemed unfitting coming from a woman. A second character in The Laramie Project that reinforced the idea that Laramie is “that kind of town,” was the Baptist minister. Even though he agreed Aaron and Russell’s actions were most definitely wrong, he concluded that he hopes when Matthew was tied to the fence and dying that he reflected on the lifestyle he chose to live. The minister insinuated with this comment that although Aaron and Russell killing Matthew was wrong, he agrees with the boys that Matthew should not have been alive.

These blatantly homophobic comments give the audience the perception that the people of Laramie resent the gay residents. People voicing such harsh opinions with little to no hesitation implies that Laramie is the kind of town that justifies the beliefs behind a hate crime. Even though some people in the town of Laramie may consent with the boy’s anti-gay attitude, very few of them would agree that showing your disapproval by murdering, as Aaron and Russell did, is permissible. None-the-less, Laramie is still the kind of town that raised two boys that robbed, beat, and eventually murdered a young man more or less because he was gay.

But what exactly is meant by “that kind of town?” Is the lady being interviewed referring to the homophobic attitudes of the people of Laramie or is it deeper than that? Donna Miskowitz, a lesbian author who visited the town of Laramie after the incident found her stay surprisingly pleasant. In the article “Love and Hate in Laramie” that she wrote following her visit she wrote, “And how does it feel to be a lesbian here? Fabulous.” Miskowitz ‘s opinion contradicts all of the stereotypes of Laramie that arose after the murder, which brings into question the underlying motivation behind the McKinney and Henderson’s gruesome actions.

The town of Laramie is said to be “obsessed with status.” Money and power control the attitudes and opinions of the residents. “Who’s on top and who’s on the bottom seems to be a matter of enormous intensity in this city,” said Miskowitz. She believes that the residents do not have a problem with homosexuals as long as they have money. This belief conflicts with some of the interviews showed on The Laramie Project, where the residents were blatantly against homosexuality, but this new outlook arises the idea that maybe Laramie is not a homophobic, hate-filled town, but rather simply too focused on status.

According to Miskowitz, Russell Hendeson’s mother was a hotel maid who died, with little surprise to the residents, after stumbling out a bar and freezing to death. They lived in the part of Laramie where the government did not even plow the streets and his mother “was the city’s most famous battering victims, and he was severely battered by her boyfriends.” Aaron McKinney was often locked in the basement by his mother throughout his childhood and frequently sent his girlfriend to school with black eyes. In the town of Laramie, McKinney and Henderson were clearly not “on top.” In fact, “Russell and Aaron were reviled for being “losers,” dropouts and poor.”

Matthew Shepard on the other hand, grew up in a well-to-do household. He attended a prestigious high school in Switzerland while his parents lived in Saudi Arabia and his father worked for Saudi Aramco, the largest oil corporation in the world. He always wore the newest designer clothes and never had to worry about money. He was clearly well educated and well spoken. Miskowitz believes When Aaron and Russell saw Matthew in the bar that night “He himself looks like an emblem of everything they have never been allowed to be.”

Perhaps Aaron and Russell’s motivation behind killing Matthew was not solely because he was gay, but rather they needed to their superiority over him in some way. They did not understand why someone who practiced something clearly against their beliefs could live a life substantially better then their own. Aaron and Russell, who had been victims of scrutiny their entire lives due to their economic status, wanted to be the dominant force for the first time.

Laramie may not be the kind of town that kills a person soley because of their sexual orientation, but it is the kind of town that allows for hurtful judgments to be made and a obvious hierarchy to be formed. If a member of the community fails to fit the Laramie standards, they will be made blatantly aware of their difference. In the Matthew Shepard case neither Aaron and Russell, nor Matthew were the ideal Laramie citizens, but for substantially different reasons. Aaron and Russell felt the need to establish their supremacy over Matthew in order to show the people of Laramie even though their were poor, they were still dominant forces in society.