"Losing Matt Shepard" Part 3

For me, one of the most disturbing passages of this book was in Chapter Four. Jim Osborn, a member of the LBGT Association, spoke with Loffreda regarding his disappointment with Human Rights Campaign (HRC); HRC works for equality within the LBGT community.  Loffreda wrote, "Jim notes that the HRC has fund-raised heavily using Matt's image but that otherwise Laramie lies on the margins of their interest: 'Their spokespeople spoke in Fort Collins and Denver, but they never came to Laramie... I think they used Matt as a political tool, that bothers me. He was not a person to them. He was something they could use one month before the election'" (97). Although this only shows one perspective on HRC's use of Matt Shepard's image, it does show a bit of disrespect that HRC had for the town of Laramie. It was noted that Judy Shepard, Matt's mother, had worked with HRC and that the organization did have the family's cooperation. However, even though lots of money was raised with Matt's face as an image and symbol, I feel that HRC should have acknowledged Laramie and its struggled. HRC did not visit Laramie, except for when Elton John performed a concert in the town, and the proceeds were going to HRC. From what I received from the information that Losing Matt Shepard provided me, it seems that HRC was more concerned with raising money on behalf of Matt Shepard, rather than comforting the town of Laramie and its tragedy. Although it is crucial that HRC raises money in order to provide funds for their programs, I believe that their warm heart needs to be spread everywhere, including Laramie, in order to continue to succeed