Laramie film project reflection

Laramie film project reflection.
Laramie film project reflects on the events that took place in Laramie following the murder of a 21-year-old youth by the name Matthew Wayne Shepard. Shepard has figured in some controversial stories about the cause of his death. His story became famous due to the different perspectives concerning his death whereby some members of the community, according to the interviews by the project, claim he was murdered due to his sexual orientation while others say it was a robbery attack.
Majorly, media has served as the core foundation for my knowledge about Matthew and the Laramie community. According to the press, he was pistol-whipped, beaten, tortured and tied up on a fence to die. Mickney and Russel were later convicted due to attempted murder and later after Matthew’s death; they were sentenced to life imprisonment for first-degree murder. Once again during his funeral, the anti-gay protests led by Reverend Phelps counteracted by the Romaine Patterson’s, a friend to Matthew, Angel action flooded the media.
According to Laramie Film Project, there are two perspectives of Mathew Shepard’s murder. One is that he was killed due to being a homosexual and the other is that it was a robbery attack. Doc O’ Connor, is one character that believes Mathew was merely attacked by the convicts who wanted to rob him and later rob his house. For him, Laramie community is friendly and welcoming hence does not discriminate anyone by their sexual orientation. His opinion is that he does not care what other people think about homosexuality as long as he is not part of the debate.

The Clergy of Laramie is another character with an entirely different perspective. This is one group that is totally against the LGBT and cannot under any circumstances justify it. For them, Matthew died because of his lifestyle which is not clear whether it is his drug life or his sexual life. The Clergy speaks against his general way of life and is confident that his lifestyle was the single course of his death. This is evident when he says that he hopes, Matthew when he was tied to the fence, was able to reflect on his lifestyle and the word of God before he went into a comma. The media as well portrays Shepard’s murder as a warning symbol to the gay community that they had no place in Laramie. They claim that Matthew was tied to the fence or rather crucified to send a clear message to the LGBT community that they were not accepted.
Matthew’s murder has had several influences on the LGBT community both positively and negatively. The killing of a person from a given community especially due to a trait that brings the members together is scary and heartbreaking. The members of this community will have low self-esteem since they will not be proud to be associated with a targeted society. They will hide their sexual status for security reasons. More so, they will lack a sense of belonging since a person can not live where he is not entirely appreciated and call such a place home. However, on the bright side, his death has resulted in campaigns in the United States against bigotry. Most importantly, teens have a place to air their ideas on gender and sexual orientation issues provided by Matthew’s parents Dennis and Judy Shepard.