Posted on 02/24/2005 8:28:51 AM PST by 2banana
Students perform play based on hate crime By NAOMI L. JENKINS Bucks County Courier Times
Middletown - Matthew Shepard, 21, had been a University of Wyoming student for only a few months when he was the victim of a hate crime in 1998.
Few in the town of Laramie knew him as well as his former roommate and good friend Romaine Patterson. The two previously lived together in Denver.
She talked publicly about Shepard, who was gay, for three minutes at a vigil the day after he died - five days after the attack.
"Once I got up and spoke about Matthew, my life was changed because the national media had my name, and my phone rang constantly after that," Patterson told drama students at George School in Middletown.
She told the students that if she started crying before the crowd of 5,000 strangers at the vigil, she knew she wouldn't stop, so she fought back the tears.
The George School students have studied and rehearsed for four months for their play, "The Laramie Project,'' based on the murder. The drama recounts Shepard's brutal slaying at the hands of Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson on the outskirts of Laramie, a cattle town in Wyoming.
The two men are serving life sentences for the crime. They met Shepard, who stood just 5 feet, 2 inches tall, in a Laramie bar, pretended to be gay and then lured him to their pickup truck. They drove to a secluded area where they pistol-whipped, burned and robbed him. Shepard was found 18 hours later, tied to a fence and left for dead.
Like a documentary, the play recounts the crime. The actors portray Laramie residents who give their opinions of the attack.
Directed by acting teacher Nelson Camp, students will perform "The Laramie Project" at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday in the George School's Walton Center.
Debbie Lo, 17, portrays Patterson in the play.
"I'm honored to be able to play her because I think she's a very, very important person in the play, very courageous, very brave," Debbie said.
She hopes the play will make people think twice about how they judge others.
"I don't think enough people stand up and talk about an issue like this," Debbie said. "Hopefully they will realize how serious hate crimes are because it's not just somebody else's problem. It affects all of us."
Another student, Alley Mazzullo, 16, said the play is funny at times but poignant and educational.
She portrays a pastor's wife who doesn't condone homosexuality but is horrified by Shepard's murder.
"I think I've learned that even though people are not accepting [of others], they still value life," Alley said. "I want the audience to see there's a ton of different people out there. You can't just discriminate against one group because there are different types of people within that group."
Teachers said the play forces students to confront homophobia.
"It's been a powerful experience already," said Carolyn Belle Lyday, a religion teacher and adviser for the school's gay and lesbian club. "It helps people be honest about how they really feel."
Patterson, who lives in Brooklyn, worked for various gay and lesbian activist groups before founding an organization called Angel Action, which holds peaceful demonstrations. She travels the nation giving speeches and is a satellite radio talk show co-host for a 24-hour gay talk channel. Her show is called "Derek and Romaine."
"I love it. I talk to a lot of straight people every day on satellite radio. That is a form of activism that's very new to me," Patterson said.
She told kids she didn't set out to be an activist, she just wanted to do what was right.
"When you hear something that doesn't sit right with you, say something. That's what activism is. You don't have to scream or yell," Patterson said.
Patterson wished she'd have done more of that during her teen years that were especially difficult.
She came "out of the closet" at age 13 in her tiny home town of Ranchester, Wyoming, which has about 670 residents.
"A lot of people I'd known all my life suddenly didn't want to be my friend anymore," she said. "By the time I was 16, I had two bleeding ulcers and I had dropped from 140 pounds to 103. It was so stressful."
A girl in her high school used to follow her around reading the Bible to her.
Patterson said she wished that instead of ignoring that student, she would have turned and said, " 'That hurts my feelings. You're making me feel bad.' Sometimes people do these things and they don't think about how it feels."
Naomi Jenkins can be reached at 215-949-4190 or at
Excellent point. What group is responsible for killing more homosexuals than any other?
A. Fellow homosexuals. If they really cared about each other, they'd quit killing each other.
So called "hate crimes" against fags will eventually go the way of "hate crimes" against blacks.
That is, most are fake.
Okay, lets follow your line of reasoning. Hundreds of thousands of Jews have been killed in pogroms, holocausts, and ethnic cleansings throughout history, so that means Jews get killed for being Jewish "all the time" right here in America, "a million times." Correct?
Look, let's face it. You lack the personal integrity to admit you've made specious claims you can't substantiate. That's fine, but recognize you probably aren't going to be very well received in this community, and it's not because WE have a problem with prejudice: you do.
Why waste your breath on someone who takes pride in their prejudice.
bump
Because it's past time that we shove the facts in their faces and call them out for the bald faced liars that they are. The more documentation, the better.
People are fed up with the 'hate speech' and 'homophobe' crap.
Ya know what? You're right. I'm pretty sick of the knee jerk "who do you think you are" attitude. My question is who are they to say someone else ISN'T to say? Isn't that the opposite side of the same coin?
Read again the excerpt from "If all else fails, silence them! Homosexuals seek 'thought crime'legislation" I posted in reply 54:
"Homosexual activists cannot win the theological debate, nor will medical science, biology, history or common sense support their deadly, tragic and changeable behavior. So they are reduced to accusing their opponents of "hatred" and silencing those brave enough to speak about the consequences of sexual anarchy on children, the family and society...
The only way homosexual activists can persuade America to validate and enforce their agenda is to suppress the truth about homosexuality.
That's awful! You are lucky you weren't hurt worse!
And how about the issues of:
Homosexual education by GLSEN to children as young as 5?
Political Correctness which makes us all mute and intimidates us into virtually condoning homosexuality?
It's not just "hate crimes" that are the problem...
Oh, there's another one too.... Mathew-Something. He was killed by two members of NAMBLA when he was 11 I think. WHAT WAS HIS NAME?????
In 1997, 10-year-old Jeffrey Curley was picked up by two men, one of whom was Charlie Jaynes. The men took Curley to the Boston Public Library where Jaynes accessed NAMBLA's website. Jaynes and another man later attempted to sexually assault Curley, but the boy fought back. Attempting to restrain him, Jaynes gagged the 10-year-old with a gasoline-soaked rag, eventually killing him.
It's just a jump to the left.....
Your claims are utter nonsense.
Please cite studies, figures and so on supporting your claim that mass genocide of homosexuals has taken place.
Your homosexual promotion is transparent, and as is usual, nothing more than lies and propaganda dressed up.
Please cite studies, with urls.
I just noticed this piece of psychotic nonsense:
"...sexual hatred is always greater than racism."
???
A crime is a crime. Then Governor George W. Bush got a lot of static after the trial of the punks who killed James Byrd in Jasper, TX (by dragging him behind a pickup truck) for not having the case prosecuted as a "hate crime". Dubya's response was perfect - it was prosecuted as a murder, two got the death penalty, one got life w/o parole, how is a "hate crime" charge going to add to that?
The homosexual apologist is no longer with us. Psychotic nonsense is about all we get from those types.
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