Laramie Project act 2

The second act of The Laramie Project focus's on the mentality towards gay people in Laramie. Sergeant Hing describes his opinion on the view of gay people in Laramie."We have one of the most vocal populations of gay people in the state....And it's pretty much: Live and let live" (Moises Kaufman 45). It is a sad fact that people use this as a good mentality to have. It shouldn't just be live and let live, the community should be accepting of everyone no matter sexual orienting. Jeffrey Lockwood describes hes wish for the men who did this weren't from Laramie. "We don't grow children like that here. well, its pretty clear that we do grow children like that here..."(Kaufman 46). People are oblivious to the fact that Aaron and Russell grow up in Laramie and therefor where influenced by the communities view on gay people. The governor talks about pushing hate crime legislation. "I would like to urge the people of Wyoming against overreacting in a way that gives one group "special rights over others"" (Kaufman 48). He is not thinking about protecting gay people of Wyoming and more on disregard them. People may say they don't have a problem with people who have a different sexual orientations but it isn't true unless they are actually accepting and don't just believe people should live and let live.

 Media defined this case. Aaron's dad describes the effects he thinks the media had on his sons conviction. "Had this been a heterosexual these two boys decided to take out and rob, this never would have made the national news. Now my son is guilty before he's even had a trial"(Kaufman 49). The media made up its mind about the reasoning for the murder before the investigation was even finished and no one questioned it. Reporters came from all over the country to cover this case. "It was huge. Yeah. It was herds and -and were talking hundreds of reporters which makes a huge dent in this tows population. There's reporters everywhere, news trucks everywhere on campus, everywhere in the town. And were not used to that type of attention to begin with, were not used to that type of exposure" (Kaufman 47).  So many people came to Laramie and broad casted not only the case but everyone in the town. The medias coverage of the crime made the nation think but more specifically the people of Laramie think. "Look, I do think that, um, the media actually made people accountable. Because they made people think. Because people were sitting in their homes, like watching TV and listening to CNN and watching Dan Rather and going, "Jesus Christ, well that's not how it is here." Well how is it here?"(Kaufman 49). The exposure gay rights got from this horrible murder made everyone consider how accepting they and their community was. It brought out change and recognition to the gay community.