Saturday, January 7, 2012
"Losing Matt Shepard" Part 2
I admire Beth Loffreda, the author of Losing Matt Shepard, because she provides multiple perspectives to not only the tragedy of Matt Shepard's death, but also to the State of Wyoming's multiple personalities. In the beginning of Chapter 2 of Losing Matt Shepard, Loffreda stressed that the town of Laramie, and Wyoming itself, is not its own culture. All of Laramie or Wyoming's citizens do not reflect the same beliefs views, identities, attitudes, or stories. So, to call Laramie, the town where Matt Shepard was murdered for being gay, a hateful and homophobic town is simply inaccurate. It takes more than the loudest voice to make up a town's culture, and unfortunately Laramie's homophobic community made up the loudest voice after Matt's death. Even though throughout her writing, Loffreda defends Wyoming and claims it to not be all bad, not all of here contributors to the novel agree. One supporter of the LGBT community rold Loffreda, "There is a tremendous xenophobia here. Wyoming is run-now not everybody here is like this-but Wyoming is run by people who have a great deal invested in making sure nothing changes. And that includes civil rights" (61). It seems that, even though not all of Wyoming's population shares the same views, the state's leaders chooses to not move forward with society and accept equality for the LGBT community. With a state of less than 600,000 people, the state is one that is caught in the past, and needs to move forward with marriage equality, and LGBT acceptance.
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It is interesting that Beth Loffreda portrays the town of Laramie as a town at a social standstill. When comparing the town of Laramie to suburbs and cities, it becomes more apparent that the community might be seen as out of touch with modern society. But I believe that even though the towns and small communities similar to Laramie that construct the population of the United States should still be somewhat respected in all fairness despite their separation from the modern mindset. After reading this article and others relating to this book, it seems as if every generation of Americans is faced with a certain minority that receives undeserving discrimination. It is depressing to witness the poor treatment of others in society, but reality is simply harsh. I enjoyed reading your outlook regarding this book because I also believe that it is saddening to see the leaders an mentors of our community ignore modern discrimination, but all of these actions that people make are simply due to perspective. The story of Matt Shepard introduces the importance of perspective and how vital of an impact is it when interpreting the life surrounding oneself. In the future, the issue of gay rights will eventually fade into different shades of equality, just as other discriminated victims have in the past. The only question that lies is what will be the next group to suffer from the hate that exists amongst the world. Maybe one day this consistent issue of discrimination will die out and harmonious living will evolve into common living.
ReplyDeleteDavid,
ReplyDeleteI agree with what you said about there always being a form of discrimination in our country. Sadly, I do agree with you and I feel that, at least while we are alive, there will always be hatred and discrimination in the United States. Hopefully before we die we will get to see acceptance among the GLBT community, and there will be an upward trend in GLBT acceptance across the country. I could not imagine who the next big group of people that we discriminate in our country will turn out to be in the future. Hopefully though, we will never have to get to that point, and eventually all hatred will die out in America. If that is possible at all, it will not happen for a VERY long time. But who knows, we never know what the future holds for us.
I agree with the point that Loffreda made, saying that the leaders in Wyoming are a minority of people who are afraid of change, but since they are the leaders, they give the rest of the community and the state a black eye. I have also noticed this in many of the presidential candidates for the 2012 election. Some Republican candidates seem to be ultra conservative, which truly bothers me. They have very closed minds, and they seem to refuse change. This political ad by Rick Perry really bothers me.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PAJNntoRgA
I feel that it is leaders like this that truly give our nation a black eye, and they prevent it from progressing to a truly equal nation. Many of these leaders do not represent the beliefs of the nation as a whole, because they are voted into office based on issues that effect the nation more such as the war on terror, and the economy (not saying that gay rights aren't important). These types of leaders exist in all levels of government whether they are local, state, or national leaders. The United States will not be able to progress as a more accepting nation until our leaders become more accepting.
Cody,
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with what you said, especially your last line, "The United States will not be able to progress as a more accepting nation until our leaders become more accepting". I completely agree with you because if it were not for the movement of ideas in our nation, we would still have slaves, voting restrictions, extreme minority discrimination laws, and tons of other horrific possibilities.
This "Gay Marriage" Timeline (link below) displays America's progress in the legal acknowledgment of same-sex marriages. Although more than half of our nation currently does not accept same-sex marriage, in the past twelve years our country has made progress. Who knows, maybe in the next fifty years that acceptance number will go up, and eventually the majority of our nation's states will accept same-sex marriages.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-gmtimeline-fl,0,5345296.htmlstory