Separating Fact from Fiction at UMD

3 lies perpetuated by The Laramie Project:

* Matthew Shepard was killed because of his private sexual misconduct. (His murder, although tragic, was a random act of violence. McKinney and Henderson looked for people to beat up and rob.)
* Matthew Shepard is an innocent victim. (HIV-positive Shepard sought a sexual encounter with McKinney and Henderson. He didn’t care about their lives. )
* People often get killed because of their private sexual misconduct. (Almost never happens – and when it does; it’s already against the law)

Untold facts about Matthew Shepard:

* Shepard had HIV and shouldn’t have been soliciting people for sex to begin with.
* Shepard wasn’t abducted because he was gay. Kidnappers Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson liked to get high and find people to beat up and rob for kicks. Shepard was small and easy to lure away, and probably approached McKinney and Henderson.
* Shepard harassed a straight bartender with homosexual advances less than two months before he was abducted. According to an AP wire story, Shepard lied to police about the incident, saying instead he was raped by three men.
* Shepard was willing to infect his would-be lovers with his own HIV in order to gratify himself sexually.
* Other murders are “less interesting” because the victims don’t engage in same-sex behavior. (e.g. The nude body of a 15-year-old girl was found in the hills east of [Laramie that same year], with 17 stab wounds. The man who was arrested and convicted was a long-time area resident; acquaintances could not believe he was capable of such horror. Then, in the spring [of that same year], a 7-year-old child from Laramie who had been visiting family in northern Wyoming was abducted, assaulted, and murdered. Her body was found in a garbage dump. A man with a history of pedophilia was arrested. He pleaded guilty. – “What Happened in Laramie,” Daniel S. Klein, MD; Ann Intern Med. 1999;130:235-236.)

Untold facts about University of Maryland’s Laramie project assignment:

* The school is promoting a pro-gay political agenda. (i.e. a push for so-called “hate crimes” laws)
* If they’re concerned about homosexuals dying, why not require students to read about the high mortality rates among young people who engage in same-sex behavior. (Hepatitus, soaring HIV infections, anal cancer, HPV.)
* Shepard was willing to infect his would-be lovers with his own HIV in order to gratify himself sexually.

“Hate Crimes” laws are unnecessary:

* Every violent crime is precipitated by hate.
* Violent crimes are already illegal.
* Special laws regarding so-called “hate crimes” are an attack on police and prosecutors, as if they don’t fully prosecute criminals who harm certain groups of people. (With no “hate crimes” laws in Texas or Wyoming, two of James Byrd’s killers got death, the snitch copped a plea for life – Shepard’s killers got life because Shepard’s parents pleaded for their lives.)
* A greater “price” should not be paid for the head of a person, simply because of their private sexual misconduct.
* Claims of physical violence because of victims’ private sexual misconduct are rare.
* Private sexual misconduct of victim should not involve greater punishment for perpetrator.

Why not force students to read about other violent acts?

* Jesse Dirkhising was an Arkansas teenager raped and murdered in ’99 by two homosexuals in a sado-masochistic sex ritual. (A nexus search reveals 13,000 print stories have been written about Shepard. Only 630 written about Dirkhising.)
* Cassie Bernall (17) or Rachel Scott (16?) at Columbine High School, killed for believing in God. Seniors Eric Harris (18) and Dylan Klebold (17) killed a teacher and fourteen students, and injured 20 others on April 20, 1999.
* At Heath High School in West Paducha, Kentucky, a 14 year-old boy named Michael Carnea killed Nicole Hadley (14), Kayce Steger (15), and Jessica James (17), and injured 5 others with a 22 caliber pistol on December 1, 1997. Carneal was sentenced to life in prison after he was found to be mentally ill.
* Over a million Christians have been slaughtered in The Sudan by the Sudanese government because of their faith in the last decade. (Some estimates say as many as 3 million.)
* Just a year [before Shepard’s death], the nude body of a 15-year-old girl was found in the hills east of town, with 17 stab wounds. The man who was arrested and convicted was a long-time area resident; acquaintances could not believe he was capable of such horror. Then, in the spring [of that same year], a 7-year-old child from Laramie who had been visiting family in northern Wyoming was abducted, assaulted, and murdered. Her body was found in a garbage dump. A man with a history of pedophilia was arrested. He pleaded guilty. (from “What Happened in Laramie,” Daniel S. Klein, MD; Ann Intern Med. 1999;130:235-236.)

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Article #1:
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The Associated Press – These materials may not be republished without the express written consent of The Associated Press.

October 14, 1998, Wednesday, AM cycle
SECTION: Domestic News
LENGTH: 300 words
HEADLINE: Authorities: Bartender punched Shepard two months ago
DATELINE: CODY, Wyo.
BODY:

The gay college student who died after being pistol-whipped last week told police he was raped by three men near Yellowstone National Park last summer, but authorities determined he was knocked out by a bartender turned off by his advances, a newspaper reported Wednesday.

Matthew Shepard, a 21-year-old University of Wyoming student, was beaten in Laramie last week. Police say robbery was the main motive for the attack, but Shepard apparently was chosen in part because he was gay. According to a Park County Sheriff’s incident report, Shepard was in Cody with his parents and younger brother on their way to Yellowstone.

He contacted police the morning of Aug. 19 to report he had been sexually assaulted by three men the night before near the park, The Cody Enterprise reported.

Deputy Scott Steward told the weekly newspaper that a rape test was done on Shepard and it showed no signs of a sexual assault. He said Shepard’s only visible injury was a bloody lip.

Shepard decided not to press charges because he could not remember details of the incident because of the amount of alcohol he had consumed, the incident report said.

Steward said his investigation led him to a man and woman who were with Shepard at the lake.

Shepard had been at a bar and after it closed accompanied a group of people, including the bartender, to Newton Lakes north of Cody to look at the stars.

“He kept asking the perpetrator to go for a walk and when he put his hand on the perpetrator’s arm and asked him to go around to the back of the car, the perpetrator hit him in the jaw,” Steward said.

The bartender, Cris Hoogerhyde, said he knocked Shepard unconscious for a couple minutes with the second of two punches.

Hoogerhyde said he apologized to Shepard after he regained consciousness.

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Article #2:
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The Associated Press – These materials may not be republished without the express written consent of The Associated Press.

October 15, 1998; Thursday 04:16 Eastern Time
SECTION: Domestic, non-Washington, general news item
LENGTH: 518 words
HEADLINE: Shepard Reportedly Claimed Rape
BYLINE: ROBERT W. BLACK
DATELINE: LARAMIE, Wyo.
BODY:

The gay college student who was beaten to death reportedly told police he was raped by three men near Yellowstone National Park two months ago.

Matthew Shepard later dropped the complaint, saying alcohol had impaired his memory. Authorities said Shepard was actually knocked out by a bartender angered by his advances. Shepard, a 21-year-old University of Wyoming student, died Monday after he was pistol-whipped and left tied to a fence outside Laramie last week.

Police say robbery was the main motive for the attack, but Shepard was singled out in part because he was gay. Four people have been charged in the slaying, two of them with first-degree murder.

The slaying has been condemned by people across the country, including President Clinton, and renewed calls for anti-hate legislation to protect homosexuals. It also has sparked some outbursts of anti-gay hatred.

Shepard told friends he had been beaten twice in recent months, attacks he attributed to his homosexuality. One of those attacks occurred Aug. 18, The Cody Enterprise reported Wednesday.

According to a Park County sheriff’s report, Shepard was in Cody with his parents and younger brother on their way to Yellowstone. He contacted police the morning of Aug. 19 to report the alleged rape.

Deputy Scott Steward told the weekly newspaper that tests done on Shepard at West Park Hospital showed no signs of sexual assault. He said Shepard’s only visible injury was a bloody lip.

Shepard decided to drop the complaint because he could not remember details of the incident because of the amount of alcohol he had consumed, the report said.

Steward’s investigation showed that Shepard had been at a bar and was punched out by a bartender after the student made an unwanted advance.

”He kept asking the perpetrator to go for a walk and when he put his hand on the perpetrator’s arm and asked him to go around to the back of the car, the perpetrator hit him in the jaw,” Steward said.

The bartender, Cris Hoogerhyde, said he knocked Shepard unconscious for a couple minutes with the second of two punches.

”He wouldn’t leave me alone,” said Hoogerhyde, who added he apologized to Shepard once he regained consciousness. ”He was just looking for someone to swing with. He seemed kind of naive.”

Meanwhile, at the University of Wyoming campus Wednesday, young children joined college professors at a forum aimed at healing.

Ten-year-old Derek Parker read a poem he wrote about the killing.

”Beaten in a car near the middle of the night, he didn’t have a chance to put up a fight,” Parker read. ”Put on a fence and left to die, now many people did cry.”

Russell Arthur Henderson and Aaron James McKinney, both 21, have been charged with first-degree murder, aggravated robbery and kidnapping with intent to inflict bodily injury or terrorize the victim.

Prosecutors haven’t said whether they will seek the death penalty against the men. Two women also have been charged as accessories.

A funeral service for Shepard will be held Friday in his hometown of Casper, 150 miles north of Laramie.

LOAD-DATE: October 15, 1998

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