Hate Crimes: Matthew Shepard Essay

Wyoming, October 7th 1998. Aaron Kriefels is cycling in a inappropriate rural area when he carry outs what at first he opines to be a scarecrow fasten to a fence. He looks closer and sees not a scarecrow, but a young man disadvantageously beaten and close to death. The victims name was Matthew Shepard. On Dec. 1st 1976, Matthew Shepard was born in Casper, Wyoming. He attend primary school in the states, but later on his first year in last school his family move to Saudi Arabia. He then attended the American School in Switzerland where he was elected as a peer mediator.His friends and peers felt comfortable talking to him and he was person you came to when you needed advice. He was draw by his father as an optimistic and accepting young man who had a special lay out of relating to almost everyone. He was the type of person who was very approachable and always looked to new challenges. Matthew had a bully passion for equality and always stood up for the acceptance of pil es differences. 1 In February 1995, during a high school trip to Morocco, Matthew was beaten, robbed, and raped, causing him to withdraw from school.According to his mother, from then on he was prone to experiencing dread attacks and depression. Although this time in his life-time was extremely difficult, Shepard still graduated in May then attended Catawba College in North Carolina and Casper College in Wyoming, before settling in Denver. Shepard became a first-year political skill major at the University of Wyoming in Laramie, and was chosen as the student representative for the Wyoming Environ manpowertal Council. Shortly after midnight, on October 7th, 1998 Shepard met two men (Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson) at the Fireside Lounge.He was offered a ride home, but curtly after leaving they robbed, pistol-whipped and tortured him, tying him to a fence leaving him to die. Matthew was left in the freezing cold suffering from his injuries before slipping into a coma. In to tal, it took 18 hours before he was base and rushed to the hospital. Upon arrival it became apparent that his injuries were too severe and the doctors couldnt operate. On October 12th, Matthew Shepard died of his injuries, never having woken up from his coma.During the tryout, McKinney tried to justify his fills by originally pleading that he and Henderson were driven to temporary insanity by alleged(a) sexual advances by Shepard. I believe this is one of the key circumstanceors in understanding why mickle do what they do when it comes to homoly based hate crimes. When men check out or hit on women they believe it is there right. The right to gaze upon a womans body is something they genuinely believe is a mans right. There is no female equivalent to a mans gaze.It is something that is seen as powerful and socially intimidating, and when the two men in the bar noticed Shepard looking at them it made them believe they were universe hit on as if they were women. Both Aaron McKi nney and Russell Henderson felt they needed to defy not nevertheless their masculinity but their heterosexuality. This is very important because, later on in the trial when McKinney states that while in the car Matthew made an apparent sexual advance toward him, instead of backing by McKinney begins hitting Shepard. later on feeling like he had been emasculated back at the bar, I predict he was just looking for an excuse to exert power over Matt. Whether he had in fact made sexual advances toward Aaron isnt the point, the point is that McKinney chose to defend his heterosexuality by literally beating the life out of him and showing him that he had the power. Both McKinney and Henderson were of slight build, but with Matthew being even smaller and only reaching 51 it only solidified in the minds of the two men their power of the homosexual man.What happens next is what changed this from a triggered Gay Panic Defense (which is, in my opinion a completely false and ridiculous excu se for those who cant control their fists) to a hate crime and a murder. After severely beating Shepard in the moving truck, Henderson tied him to the fence. Their decision to tie his body up for everyone to see is part of their intensions to make it a public display of what they believe should be private. In an interview for the Laramie fuddle (a play based on the events of Matthews death), McKinneys girlfriend tells writers about why the two men really decided to invite Matt into their car.After being disgusted at the thought of being hit on by a gay man they go to the bathway where they plan to ramble on a gay pretense in order to lead Shepard into their vehicle and rob him. They treasured him to be punished for coming onto straight stack. By lifting his body in midair and tethering him to the fence they were sensitive that someone would find him that way. They didnt hide or trash or burry the body, they made it a spectacle. that in doing this, you can deduce that this mur der wasnt fully about Matthew Shepard.He was a trigger, he was someone they could take advantage of. They used his body to show not only to Matthew himself, but to Laramie and the ring community that they were defending their manhood. And in one of the most brutal ways you can imagine. Hate crimes towards people who are a different sexual orientation then others are more common than people think. There are a lot of organizations that try to help stop these hate crimes but I think that these situations should be in the news more often.People need to be more aware about what they swan and what they do because you never know who could be listening. It could be your children who exit take what you say as the truth. It could be someone walking near you or even in the same room and be deeply offended by what you say. You never know who you could offend, be it a friend, a fellow worker or even a family member. People need to watch what they say because you never know who will be listen ing. Hate crimes must be stopped and it will take people to take action against it in order to make the world a better place.