Donor: Inspired by Matthew Shepard
Guest blogger Lindsey Gregerson is a Pride Foundation donor that was inspired to share her story after attending the Seattle Children’s Theatre’s production of The Laramie Project (a project supported by Pride Foundation).
I started donating to Pride Foundation because I wanted to make sure that our community’s projects continued to flourish and connect with younger generations of LGBT people and allies. Last night, at the opening of The Laramie Project I got to see first hand the impact of my support.
In case you don’t know, The Laramie Project is the story of Matthew Shepard, a gay twenty-one-year-old student at the University of Wyoming who was kidnapped, beaten, tied to a fence, and left to die in the middle of the prairie outside Laramie, Wyoming. The play focuses on the townspeople of Laramie and how the death of Matthew and the surrounding media attention affected their community. The dialogue is taken from real interviews and recording with a wide range of townsfolk including the doctor who cared for both Matthew and one of his murderers, Matthew’s friends, the officer that first responded at the fence that he was bound to and other everyday people. A powerful scene included a statement by Matthew’s father at the sentencing hearing of one of the accused.
Though Matthew was murdered more than decade ago, the story still resonates today as we know we have not eliminated homophobia, nor do I believe that we can ever rest on the laurels that our community activists have helped to secure to date. It’s a powerful reminder of how we must continue to share this story with each other and to young people.
One of set pieces in the play was a fence placed in the background of the stage. That fence represented the place where a young man, preparing for a career in activism, was beaten and left for 18 hours in the Wyoming cold to die. It was an image I will not soon forget.
The first responder was quoted as saying, “…the only part of his face that was not covered in blood was where tears had fallen.”
Thank you to everyone at SCT for their brave and mature performances. Thank you to Pride Foundation for keeping us alive, awake and aware with your support of important projects like this one.
The Laramie Project runs through to July 31st at the Charlotte Martin Theatre in Seattle. Visit www.sct.org for more info.
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