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The Laramie project captures the moments and life surrounding the murder of Mathew Shepard, a gay student brutally murdered in Laramie, Wyoming. The project attempts to look into the life of Shepard through his family and friends and residents of Laramie. The project is a follow on attempts to eliminate hate crimes based on sexual identities. The film captures also the different opinions about the town through interviews. It is apparent that the people of Wyoming were not comfortable talking to the press, because the media sensationalized the story.
Even though, the media portrayed the notion that the place probably did not think much about the incident, this is not the case. The Town’s residents are actually against the stereotype that their town is uncaring. Thus, even conducting interviews was not an easy task for people working for the project. It as if the media merely tainted the image of the town, although not to the same level like Waco. There may be the occasional singling out of gay people, but residents stated that the Town did not exclude people for who they were, unless these people were a nuisance to them (Laramie Project Movie, 2012).
Laramie Town is a laid back place unlike major cities, but similar to small towns. Even though, some of the residents say that discrimination is not common in the area, their have the feeling that they are holding back opinion. In other words, the community is against being identified with any gay agenda, but do not want to be viewed as bigots. One of the first female interviewees gave the opinion that her students talked about the issue, but the minute the press descended in the area the story became wide-spread. It is a place;
