Laramie Project

The Laramie Project is a play written by Moises Kaufman and members of the Tectonic Theater Project. It is a compilation of over 200 interviews conducted by the theater company with inhabitants of the town.

Template:Substub According to recently uncovered, inconvenient facts aired in an episode of the ABC News magazine 20/20 (aired November 26, 2004), it is now appears that the murder of Matthew Shepard was not a hate crime. Instead, it was a brutal, methamphetamine fueled robbery/homicide with greed, not hatred as the motive. The facts in the case were subsumed by both the defense attorneys (attempting to secure an acquittal by playing to bigotry with a "gay panic" defense), and activist friends of Matthew Sheperd's, who cynically used this horrific crime as a means to advance a politico-social agenda. Perhaps this work is best renamed The Laramie Leverage

Of course, there is no evidence to support the above claims about methamphetamines or its status as a hate crime. It is remarkable how 20/20 can categorized as news reporting. It is Right Wing opinion, as usual, presented as fact.

For complete and authoritative information about the laramie project, visit http://www.tectonictheaterproject.org/Laramie/Laramie.htm