Prejudice and irony in Laramie Wyoming

If there were two words that describe Laramie Wyoming, they would be 'generic' and 'old school'. First, it's a small town, and people are simple. Second, people who live there seem to have a more conservative old way of thinking. Very few residents are liberal minded. The following statements represent that in many ways. In The Laramie Project, Jonas Slonaker says, "when I came here I knew it was going to be hard as a gay man." and "So many gay men grew up here, and they're like "this is not a place where I can live, how can you live there?".  These statements infer that a gay male is out of place in Laramie. Another example of this town being intolerant to gay people is from a waitress named Marge Murray, she commented about what someone might do if they met a gay person in a bar.  She says, "They might poke one, if they were in a bar situation, you know they had been drinking, they might actually smack one in the mouth but they'd just walk away." This is interesting because it is not a male saying this, but a woman. Women, as well as men, seem to have prejudices against gays in this town.  This last quote from the book shows that there are people in Laramie are not only clueless about different cultures, but are afraid of them too. "Because I'm Muslim I decided to start wearing a scarf." People say things to me like,"'why do you have to wear that thing on your head?" "like when I got to the grocery store, Im not looking to give people islam 101." and "This is the worst part cause they'll be like, I know its part of your religion, but why?" So, all these thing tell the reader that this is a town that is uneducated in difference. It does not mean this town cannot grow, but for now there are two words that come to mind. generic and old school.

Irony is a big contributor to the creativity of this book and play.  It also is a major theme throughout. Something haunting but ironic is that according to Matthew Shepherds academic director, he was actually studying to work in human rights after he graduated college. His director commented, "I can only say this in retrospect, of course….I think he was heading towards human rights." Matthew was planning to spend his life helping to teach acceptance to all people, including the very people that murdered him.