Hate Crimes: Matthew Shepard Essay

Wyoming, October 7th 1998. Aaron Kriefels is cycling in a remote rural area when he sees what at low gear he desires to be a scarecrow tied to a fence. He looks closer and sees not a scarecrow, that a young valet badly beaten and close to death. The victims name was Matthew Shepard. On Dec. 1st 1976, Matthew Shepard was innate(p) in Casper, Wyoming. He attended elementary school in the states, but after his first year in high school his family move to Saudi Arabia. He accordingly attended the American School in Switzerland where he was elected as a peer mediator.His friends and peers felt well-situated talking to him and he was someone you came to when you adopted advice. He was described by his father as an optimistic and accepting young opus who had a special gift of relating to almost e preciseone. He was the type of person who was very approachable and always looked to new challenges. Matthew had a great passion for par and always stood up for the acceptance of peoples d ifferences. 1 In February 1995, during a high school trip to Morocco, Matthew was beaten, robbed, and raped, causing him to withdraw from school.According to his mother, from then(prenominal) on he was prone to experiencing panic attacks and depression. Although this time in his breeding was extremely difficult, Shepard still graduated in May then attended Catawba College in North Carolina and Casper College in Wyoming, before settling in Denver. Shepard became a first-year political science major at the University of Wyoming in Laramie, and was chosen as the student representative for the Wyoming Environmental Council. Shortly after midnight, on October 7th, 1998 Shepard met two men (Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson) at the Fireside Lounge.He was offered a aim home, but shortly after leaving they robbed, pistol-whipped and tortured him, tying him to a fence leaving him to die. Matthew was left in the freezing cold damage from his injuries before slipping into a coma. In to tal, it took 18 hours before he was found and rushed to the hospital. Upon arrival it became apparent that his injuries were too severe and the doctors couldnt operate. On October 12th, Matthew Shepard died of his injuries, neer having woken up from his coma.During the endeavor, McKinney tried to justify his actions by sooner pleading that he and Henderson were driven to temporary insanity by assert sexual hop ons by Shepard. I believe this is one of the key factors in understanding why people do what they do when it comes to homosexually based dis corresponding crimes. When men check out or hit on women they believe it is there right. The right to gaze upon a womans soundbox is something they genuinely believe is a mans right. There is no female equivalent to a mans gaze.It is something that is seen as goodly and socially intimidating, and when the two men in the bar noticed Shepard face at them it made them believe they were being hit on as if they were women. Both Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson felt they needed to typify not only their masculinity but their heterosexuality. This is very important because, later on in the trial when McKinney states that while in the car Matthew made an apparent sexual advance toward him, instead of backing away McKinney begins hitting Shepard.After feeling like he had been emasculated back at the bar, I bet he was just looking for an excuse to exert power over Matt. Whether he had in fact made sexual advances toward Aaron isnt the point, the point is that McKinney chose to defend his heterosexuality by literally beating the life out of him and present him that he had the power. Both McKinney and Henderson were of slight build, but with Matthew being even up little and only reaching 51 it only solidified in the minds of the two men their power of the homosexual man.What happens next is what changed this from a triggered spanking Panic Defense (which is, in my opinion a completely phoney and ridiculous exc use for those who cant control their fists) to a detest crime and a murder. After severely beating Shepard in the woful truck, Henderson tied him to the fence. Their decision to tie his physical structure up for everyone to see is wear out of their intensions to establish it a public display of what they believe should be private. In an interview for the Laramie Project (a play based on the events of Matthews death), McKinneys girlfriend tells writers about why the two men really opinionated to invite Matt into their car.After being disgusted at the judgment of being hit on by a mirthful man they go to the bathroom where they plan to put on a gay pretense in order to lead Shepard into their vehicle and rob him. They treasured him to be punished for coming onto straight people. By lifting his body in midair and tethering him to the fence they were aware that someone would find him that way. They didnt hide or trash or burry the body, they made it a spectacle. But in doing t his, you can deduce that this murder wasnt fully about Matthew Shepard.He was a trigger, he was someone they could take advantage of. They used his body to show not only to Matthew himself, but to Laramie and the surrounding community that they were defend their manhood. And in one of the most brutal ways you can imagine. abhor crimes towards people who are a different sexual orientation then others are more common than people think. There are a lot of organizations that try to help stop these hate crimes but I think that these situations should be in the news more often.People need to be more aware about what they say and what they do because you never populate who could be listening. It could be your children who entrust take what you say as the truth. It could be someone walking near you or even in the same room and be deeply offended by what you say. You never know who you could offend, be it a friend, a co-worker or even a family member. People need to watch what they say b ecause you never know who will be listening. Hate crimes must be stopped and it will take people to take action against it in order to make the world a better place.