The Laramie Project Sparknotes

The Laramie Project by Moisés Kaufman is a play that captures the sentiment in Laramie, Wyoming following the murder of Matthew Shepard, a gay college student, at the hands of Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson. The play incorporates real-life interviews and testimonies from Laramie residents performed by the actors and actresses. By using the verbatim quotes from people involved with the incident and its aftermath, Kaufman grounds the play in reality and prevents fictional elements from undercutting the brutality of the crime and the devastation it caused on real people for the audience. It also helps to prevent any Laramie resident from feeling unfairly portrayed, a common problem when making plays based on true stories. By utilizing his

In the entirety of the play, there are over 200 interviews given by over 60 unique people. While some of the people involved are family and close friends of Shepard, there are also people who had never interacted with Shepard before. The incorporation of these interviews with people who were strangers to Shepard emphasizes the profound impact that the murder had on the town as a

The sentiment towards same-sex relationships is mixed in Laramie, and these views shape each resident’s interpretation and reaction to the incident. Pro-LGBT people in the community hold the firm belief that Shepard’s murder was a hate crime motivated by his sexuality. However, many more townspeople vehemently denied any homophobic motivation in the crime, stating that the sole motivation for the crime was to rob Shepard. These feelings are influenced by the political climate of Wyoming at the time. 1998 was years before the legalization of same-sex marriage in America, and Wyoming is a particularly conservative state, as evident by the statement given by governor Jim Geringer when confronted by his lack of hate crime legislation. “I would like to urge the people of Wyoming against overreacting in a way that gives one group ‘special rights of others’” (Kaufman, 78). This insistence that the murder was not influenced by Shepard’s sexuality contradicts other testimonies read in the play. When asked if she thought that there was homophobia involved in the crime, Jen, a friend of Aaron McKinney, said, “probably. It probably would’ve pissed him off that Matthew was gay ‘cause he didn’t like- the gay people I’ve seen him interact with” (Kaufman, 92-93). Even McKinney himself admitted his disdain towards the LGBT community. Every community member’s biases and beliefs