My senior year of highschool I played Dennis Shepard in The Laramie Project. It was quite the experience for me, not only because I was able to play a dramatic role (in a sense) but also because it made me much more acutely aware of homophobia in people around me. My roommate is a very liberal minded person, but some of his thoughts really bother me. But that's beside the point. Earlier this year, I was trying to remember the Dennis Shepard monologue, and came across his entire speech to the court at Aaron McKinney's trial. This is admittedly a long read, but I feel that it is worth it. If anything, it makes you think. Personally, it made me cry, but that might well be because I'm a sensitive person =p].
Anyhow, here it is:
Dennis Shepard's speech to the court
Dennis Shepard is the father of Matthew Shepard, a gay University of Wyoming student who was beaten to death in 1998. His killers, Aaron James McKinney and Russel Arthur Henderson are serving life-sentences in jail.
I know that it looks like dry court testimony at first glance, however, it is anything but dry.
Edited by: Lauritz Melchior at: 4/8/05 18:53