Incidental Progress

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.