When hate crimes occur,
people get offended because it becomes clear that humans are not as pure and
compassionate as they are cracked up to be. On October 6th, 1998 a university
student was beaten nearly to death and left to die tied to a fence outside of
Laramie, Wyoming. Matthew’s sexuality led people to believe that it was a hate
crime against homosexuals. Based on various pieces of evidence, declaring this
murder as a hate crime is false, but it ultimately made a positive impact on
the LGBT community.
Aaron McKinney participated in sexual acts
with other men; this dissolves the argument that this murder was committed
purely based on Shepard’s sexuality. McKinney’s sexuality is first questioned
when an anonymous letter is sent to the court. In Stephen Jiminez’s The Book
of Matt, he discusses the contents of this letter, saying that the writer
calls McKinney’s antigay defense crazy because he was seen in gay bars and hung
around with gay people and seemed “comfortable with that sort of thing.” The
letter also states that McKinney would offer sexual acts in exchange for drugs
or money. McKinney’s participation in such activities proves that he was far
from homophobic. This speculation is furthered in the 2004: ABC News 20/20
report: The Matthew Shepard Case when Doc O’Connor, a limousine driver,
tells the interviewer that he knows that Aaron is bisexual. He admits to
participating in threesomes with McKinney. O’Connor is a local resident of Laramie
and is close to McKinney, his testimony is perceived to be correct because of
their close relationship. Kristen Price, McKinney’s former girlfriend and the
mother of his child, says in her 20/20 interview that he would
always try to get her to have threesomes with him and his friends, which she
always refused.
The crime happened supposedly anonymously, but
evidence shows that Shepard and McKinney knew each other prior to their meeting
at the Fireside bar. This implies that there may have been stronger influences
on the crime. Knowing their involvement in the drug community, other factors
such as drugs and money are to blame.
Multiple sources have witnessed that Shepard and McKinney in fact knew
each other and that they were both heavily involved in the meth trade. This
supports the assumption that this crime could be more heavily motivated by
drugs and money rather than sexual orientation. In Stephen Jimenez the Book
of Matt, Elaine Baker, acquaintance of both McKinney and Shepard, says that
the two definitely knew each other. She states that she had seen them at a
party together and that drugs were involved. This further disproves the popular
story: two homophobic men murder a random gay man in order to teach him a
lesson. Cal Rucha, the prosecuting attorney revealed in his interview with 20/20 that “it was a murder driven by drugs”.
Rucha realizes McKinney and Shepard’s strong involvement with meth and that
sexuality had little to do with the murder. Ryan Bopp, a close friend of
McKinney’s, says in his 20/20 interview that in the days leading up to
Shepard’s murder, McKinney was using meth very frequently. His strong reaction
to Shepard’s “pass on him” could easily be justified due to the drugs. While
the motivation for this crime was not homophobia, it has ultimately been good
for human rights. The media coverage gave this movement a face and caused a lot
of progress to be made.
In the Laramie Project by Moises Kauffman,
Jedidiah Schulz says that “...it just seemed way blown out of proportion.
Matthew Shepard was just a name rather than an individual.”(Kauffman 96). If
this case had not received national attention, the LGBT community might not
have received so much positive change. Jon Peacock, Shepard’s academic advisor,
addresses his impact on society and his change in human rights. He says that
“In retrospect, and I can only say this in retrospect of course, I think that’s
where he was headed, towards human rights. Which only adds to irony and tragedy
of this.” (Kauffman 18). Although Shepard was not able to further human rights
in his lifetime, he was able to be the poster child for the movement that
changed everything. Shepard’s dad, Dennis Shepard is able to see this; “Matt’s
beating, hospitalization, and funeral focused worldwide attention on hate. Good
is coming out of evil.” (Kauffman 94). The murder brought on the change most
gay people were dreaming of. This tragedy brought so much improvement it is
hard to disprove the ruling as a hate crime.
In 2009, president Obama signed the Hate Crime Preventions Act in
Matthew Shepard’s name. Eleven years after his murder his name is still a label
put on hate crimes and gay rights. Matthew Shepard was being portrayed as an
angle in the media coverage which creates a myth. Every story was so
exaggerated; each reporter focused on his innocence and sexuality while in
reality Matthew was no saint. His involvement with methamphetamine added so
many factors to this murder but his sexuality seemed to drown out the others.
While his case may have been falsely diagnosed the impact is extreme; the
murder had other motives than solely his sexual orientation but its impact is
still lasting.
