Hate Crime In The Film, Matt Shepard

344 Words1 Page

The film Matt Shepard is a Friend of Mine, is a true story based off of the life of a young homosexual man who was the victim of a hate crime. The victim, Matt Shepard, had been brutally beaten to death by two men, McKinney and Henderson, who claim themselves to be homophobic. When this case was taken to court, the two assailants used the gay panic defense. This is a legal defense in which the defendant claims they acted in a state of violent temporary insanity because of a psychiatric condition called homosexual panic. McKinney and Henderson, after committing those heinous acts, were charged with first degree murder, kidnapping, and aggravated robbery. The charge of first degree murder means that they were eligible for receiving

Show More
Related

  • Hate Crimes: A Boys Life an Essay by Joan Wypilewski

    1083 Words  | 3 Pages

    In October of 1998, Aaron Kreifels, a young man, resident of Laramie, Wyoming discovered Matthew Shepard's limp body bound to a fence. From a distance Kreifels mistook Shepard's slender frame for a “scarecrow”, and was horrified to find otherwise (Kaufman). Matthew Shepard, a twenty-one year old University of Wyoming student, had been beaten until he was no longer recognizable, and while still technically alive he was rushed into urgent care. He died, after slipping into a coma, six days later (Kaufman).

    Read More

  • Abuse In The Movie 'Safe Haven'

    661 Words  | 2 Pages

    The movie Safe Haven is about a woman named Erin who is runs away from her abusive husband. He is a police officer with an anger problem. Throughout the movie Erin has flashbacks where we learn of her husband’s abuse—how he would yell, hit, and even choke her. One night after she had enough, she fled to her neighbor’s house. Her neighbor helped her to cut and dye her hair, change her clothes, and flee to the bus station. Erin bought a bus ticket and ended up in North Carolina. There she changed her name to Katie and started a new life for herself.

    Read More

  • Racism In The Movie Pleasantville

    2331 Words  | 5 Pages

    According to Newman in Sociology: The Architecture of Everyday Life, a social class “consists of people who occupy similar positions of power, privilege, and prestige” (Newman, 2012). Someone’s position in a social class can affect “virtually every aspect of their lives, including political preferences, sexual behavior, religious affiliation, diet, and life expectancy” (Newman, 2012). The social class that was represented in the film was the middle-class. The show, Pleasantville, portrays the 1950s in which the wife would stay at home cooking and cleaning while the father works. This show holds similar views to the show, Leave it to Beaver. The movie begins

    Read More

  • The Movie Violence Interrupters

    824 Words  | 2 Pages

    The documentary, The Interrupters, is a film that tells the ongoing journey of three ‘violence interrupters’ who’s goals are to stop and prevent violence from their South Side Chicago, Illinois neighborhoods, which they once took part of. An interesting aspect of this film is that Ameena Matthews, Cobe Williams and Eddie Bocanegra, the three ‘violence interrupters’, reflect on their experiences with violence in the streets of Chicago in order to better help these young men and women avoid the community violence. These three ‘violence interrupters’ work intensely with a number of people (mostly young adults) who are prone to acting out and violent behavior.

    Read More

  • The Laramie Project: A Hate Crime

    1490 Words  | 3 Pages

    A hate crime is defined as “a crime motivated by racial, sexual, or other prejudice, typically one involving violence” (Oxford Dictionaries). Matthew Shepard’s death caused great disorder in Laramie despite the fact that it was originally an unknown town. In a sense, Laramie itself has changed due to the media attention of this event. Hate was originally “not a Laramie value” (Kaufman 15), but after this hate crime, the public has great sympathy for Matthew Shepard and distrust towards Laramie’s people. Even with all the support as well as the parade for Shepard, it is quite disappointing that there weren’t any regulations or protection offered to homosexuals, bisexuals, or transgender, after this crime. The media only showcased the event and

    Read More

  • The Stonewall Riots

    1224 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the past decades, the struggle for gay rights in the Unites States has taken many forms. Previously, homosexuality was viewed as immoral. Many people also viewed it as pathologic because the American Psychiatric Association classified it as a psychiatric disorder. As a result, many people remained in ‘the closet’ because they were afraid of losing their jobs or being discriminated against in the society. According to David Allyn, though most gays could pass in the heterosexual world, they tended to live in fear and lies because they could not look towards their families for support. At the same time, openly gay establishments were often shut down to keep openly gay people under close scrutiny (Allyn 146). But since the 1960s, people have dedicated themselves in fighting for

    Read More

  • The Rodney King Beating

    706 Words  | 2 Pages

    On March 3, 1991, Los Angeles police officers attempted to stop a white sedan traveling at a high rate of speed through Lake View Terrace, a residential neighborhood in northern Los Angeles. After a short pursuit, King was ordered out of his vehicle at gunpoint. King refused to comply and became belligerent and uncooperative. The use of open-hand controls, pepper spray and tasers were ineffective, as King continued to assault officers while resisting arrest. More LAPD officers arrived and King was finally subdued with the use of nightsticks. Investigation later revealed King was under the influence of a combination of PCP and cocaine.

    Read More

  • Mcwilliams Vs Dunn Case Study

    482 Words  | 1 Pages

    One month after Ake was given and decided the State of Alabama charged McWilliams with counts of rape and murder.

    Read More

  • Film Analysis of Bowling for Columbine by Michael Moore

    3229 Words  | 7 Pages

    that since the KKK was evil, that the NRA is also evil as it is made

    Read More

  • Racism In The Film: Miss Evers Boys

    1014 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Tuskegee Study, as exampled in the film “Miss Evers’ Boys,” was a horrendous example of the result of racism, a vulnerable population, and the manipulation of people not given the proper dignity they deserved, to benefit the majority class (Woodard). According to the film, in this study a whole community of African Americans went decades with identified cases of syphilis, being given placebo interventions and unjustifiably told that a later recognized intervention of penicillin shots were too risky for their use. Why would they do this? To gain knowledge; and they viewed the study as a “pure” scientific experiment, a human trial that would likely never be acceptable to have been conducted on Whites of the time, and under the full knowledge and aid of the U.S. government (Woodard, “Miss Evers’ Boys”).

    Read More

  • Effects of Gay Rights in America

    937 Words  | 2 Pages

    The case has been portrayed in a movie, "Boys Don't Cry", in which the lead actress, played by Hilary Swank won an Oscar in 1999. Because the crime rates have dropped, crimes against homosexuals have risen in the past few years. Laws in several states do not cover crimes related to homosexuals. There are four states in America that have no safe haven for homosexuals, states must establish crueler punishment for men and women that commit heinous hate crimes based on sexual orientation In a statement released by Judy Shepard, Matthews mother, she says. Matt is no longer with us today because the men who killed him learned to hate.

    Read More

  • Racism and The Justice System in “A Time to Kill”

    1356 Words  | 3 Pages

    In John Grishams’ (1996) film “A Time to Kill” issues surrounding the racism in the Deep South take place and based on a true life experience of John Grisham. The novel, like the movie, opens with a very brutal rape scene. It’s the socio-politics that give this film an energetic and confrontational feel of southern racial politics. Racism was still very strong even some 20 years after the civil war (Ponick 2011). Hollywood and John Grisham wanted to make bold statement about racism and they accomplished this in the closing argument of the courtroom scene.

    Read More

  • The Stonewall Riots

    1946 Words  | 4 Pages

    Life for most homosexuals during the first half of the Twentieth century was one of hiding, being ever so careful to not give away their true feelings and predilections. Although the 1920s saw a brief moment of openness in American society, that was quickly destroyed with the progress of the Cold War, and by default, that of McCarthyism. The homosexuals of the 50s “felt the heavy weight of medical prejudice, police harassment and church condemnation … [and] were not able to challenge these authorities.” They were constantly battered, both physically and emotionally, by the society that surrounded them. The very mention or rumor of one’s homosexuality could lead to the loss of their family, their livelihood and, in some cases, their lives. Geanne Harwood, interviewed on an National Public Radio Broadcast commemorating the twentieth anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, said that “being gay before Stonewall was a very difficult proposition … we felt that in order to survive we had to try to look and act as rugged and as manly as possibly to get by in a society that was really very much against us.” The age of communist threats, and of Joseph McCarthy’s insistence that homosexuals were treacherous, gave credence to the feeling of most society members that homosexuality was a perversion, and that one inflicted was one to not be trusted.

    Read More

  • The Causes Of The Stonewall Riots

    1014 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...were mentally ill or psychotic. Frank Kameny, a leader of the gay rights movement, perpetuated the idea that “Homosexuality is not a sickness…but is merely a preference, an orientation, or propensity, on par with, and not different in kind from, heterosexuality.” (Sherry Wolf, Sexuality and Socialism) Some schools even went as far as to create public safe spaces for gay students such as Columbia University’s Student Homophile League. Now, people are well aware of the presence of the LGBTQ community, and members are even trying to educate people who seem ignorant or bigoted. Many people currently dedicate a good portion of their lives to learning and teaching people about the gay rights movement and how it functions today. The community has evolved to include transgender, asexual, pansexual, and non binary people as well as a multitude of other labels and identities.

    Read More

  • Homophobia in American Beauty

    791 Words  | 2 Pages

    One of the characters in the movie is homophobic and this behavior leads him to commit a murder at the end of the film. There are many reasons for homophobic behavior, one of them is that the person displaying this kind of behavior may be a homosexual too and

    Read More

More about Hate Crime In The Film, Matt Shepard

Open Document