The Laramie Project” tells the story of a group of young people who create a play about the events that occurred in the town of Laramie, Wyoming. The group conducted interviews about the murder of Matthew Shepard, a gay student who had accused two straight teenagers in a bar. These teenagers then kidnapped Matthew, tied him to a pole and then brutally beat him into a coma and then to death. This movie filled me with both disappointment and hope for the actions of human beings. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay One of the main things that really saddened me was the fact that none of the interviewees in the film wanted to talk about the shooting that happened in the city. Not because they were distraught with pain, but because they didn't want to be disturbed. I thought it was a little strange. Here was this opportunity to represent yourself and your city, and yet people were more bothered by all that attention than the murder itself; their priorities weren't really straight. It's not that they didn't want to discuss it. The main problem was that these people didn't want to blame their small town of Laramie and the fact that yes, there was a homophobic mentality. This cold attitude is always present, even in today's society. People don't want to talk about the issues at hand, such as the problems facing queer individuals and police brutality, saying the time and place are simply "not right." When will the time be right? Having a spotlight on which to discuss these issues is a good way to bring them to the attention of the public, to give them the attention they deserve. If everyone had the mentality of rejecting any discussion, then nothing would get done in this country. Another big theme that came to mind throughout the film was the extreme amount of victim shaming. I couldn't believe that people actually said it was Matthew Shepard's fault, that he was the one who "asked for it!" This is absolutely unacceptable, especially by today's standards. For example, many people in the film had talked about how Matthew had hit on two straight guys, or that he had "flaunted his homosexuality". Even worse was when one of the townspeople said something along the lines of Matthew not being a saint because he had HIV; that's like saying someone is a bad person because they got lung cancer from smoking! The fact that these words came out of the mouths of so many Laramie residents shows that they actually had no sympathy for his brutal murder. Victim blaming doesn't just happen with hate crimes. It can also be seen in modern times in debates about what women should wear and what to do with their bodies. For example, in the recent case of Stanford rapist Brock Turner - who raped an unconscious woman - there were still people justifying his actions by saying things like "she shouldn't have been drunk." Or, better yet, maybe Brock Turner shouldn't have raped her! Maybe Henderson and McKinney shouldn't have tortured Matthew Shepard just for hitting on them! Some people's ignorance really baffles me sometimes. However, not all scenes in "The Laramie Project" were bad; there were a couple of scenes that filled me with hope. For example, during the city parade scene with Matteo's section, I was happy to see that the section had gathered more and more supporters! To me, this showed that there were still good people in that city who were willing to put themselves out there to support him, even if it.