Perhaps this will shut up the nasty man (and those like him) who called Judy Shepard a liar during her recent reading of The Meaning Of Matthew in Salt Lake City. Via the AP:
A decade after “The Laramie Project” became a theatrical phenomenon, its creators are back with an epilogue highlighted by a riveting prison interview with the killer of gay college student Matthew Shepard — depicting him as candid but not remorseful over the murder.
The new production, which opens nationwide Oct. 12 at more than 130 theaters, features a segment based on more than 10 hours of face-to-face interviews with convicted killer Aaron McKinney, conducted by Greg Pierotti, a gay actor/writer who helped create the original docudrama.
. . . “As far as Matt is concerned, I don’t have any remorse,” McKinney is quoted as saying in the script, which was provided to The Associated Press by the production company. “The night I did it, I did have hatred for homosexuals,” McKinney is quoted as saying. He goes on, according to the script, to say that he still dislikes gays and that his perceptions about Shepard’s sex life bolstered his belief that the killing was justified.
The epilogue is part of The Laramie Project: 10 Years Later.
3. November 2009 at 2:14 pm
About the Laramie Project, people have the right to raise questions. Why did Matthew Shepard get in a car with straight guys in the middle of the night? (it’s amazing to me that no one has raised this question). Recently in a Newsweek interview, his mother , Judy Shepard, said that Matthew had a “dark side.” Did he seek out dangerous situations with heterosexual males? Since Matthew obviously had “gaydar,” he knew he was going out with straight men.
An earlier episode in his life seems to show his penchant for seeking this kind of danger. In a March, 1999 interview with Vanity Fair, Judy Shepard discussed that while Matthew was on vacation in Morocco during his senior year in high school, a gang there raped him. Again, it seems that Matthew Shepard put himself in a perilous situation with straight males (I’ve been to Morocco many times and people don’t get dragged off the street and raped).
Obviously, Shepard didn’t deserve to be murdered, but it is doubtful that he was the saintly martyr he is made out to be.