THE SCARECROW OF LARAMIE LANE

Homo, pervert, disgusting, fudge packer, mama’s boy, cocksucker, queer, abomination, unchristian, immoral, friend of Dorothy, threat to my marriage, threat to my family, butt fucker, sinful, gross, girly girl, man whore, Mary, dirty fuck, ungodly, Elton John loving faggot are just some of the words that people have chosen to classify the gay subculture.
I have never fully understood why there is so much hatred and fear towards the gay community. Looking to history, any person can discover that their have been individuals that have pushed their agenda and propaganda onto society to create a state of ignorance and fear. The Jews, homosexuals, and the mentally handicap experienced this during the German occupation of Europe and they suffered dearly for it. Most recently, hatred has exploded in places like Rwanda, Bosnia, and the Darfur region of Sudan. All of these examples had minorities that were deeply hated mostly due to ignorant political reasons and in some cases they were almost eradicated simply because of hatred and fear.
Now I’m not comparing the suppression of the gays in the United States to the genocide in Rwanda and I don’t believe that we are heading into that direction, however there has been thousands of isolated cases of hate towards individuals in the United States. The only way we are going to prevent these isolated acts is through education and learning more about each other as human beings.
One of the most notable cases in the United States is that of Matthew Shepard. Matthew was a political science major at the University of Wyoming in the small college town of Laramie. He made the decision one night to take a ride with two guys who had pretended to be gay and they preceded to rob him and beat him severely. It is believed that they used words of hate towards Matthew and they beat him because of the perceived threat of his sexuality. They then left him hanging on a lonely fence like a broken scarecrow. Matthew hung there for more than eighteen hours, his face covered in blood except for the trail of tears that had fallen from his eyes. Matthew died a few days later due to the injuries he suffered.
In response to his very tragic death, Matthew’s mother, Judy Shepard, started the Matthew Shepard Foundation in support of education and understanding of the gay culture. It was her hope, that through education, hate crimes would end and laws protecting gays and lesbians would be enacted by the federal government. I sat in the audience of one of her speeches that she gave years after the events that unfolded in Laramie. She recalled in detail the news of Matthew’s injuries and the ordeal her family suffered during days and years that followed. Her speech profoundly changed my life and I swore to myself that I would live to see the day that these horrible acts of hate would end.
Education is the key that will unlock that pathway towards equality for the United States. America is the beacon of hope, equality, democracy, and freedom for all individuals and it’s time that we start living up to that beacon. The ideal belief that all men are created equal and that we all have the right to the pursuit of happiness is the core of our society. I urge each and everyone of you to go out and learn about another individual that might just be a little different from yourself. I think you might discover that we have a lot of similar thoughts and ideals and you might be lucky enough to have a connection that could last a lifetime.