The Laramie Project: A Convenient Untruth?

[haterobics]

Posted: 8/13/14 at 10:46pm

Since I read "The Book of Matt," which questioned the actual story behind Matthew Shepard's murder more than a decade ago in Laramie, Wyoming, I was curious to read this article that wonders if The Laramie Project needs to stop positioning itself as a docudrama.

Since it is theater-related, I thought people on here might be interested to read it... warning, it isn't a quick read.




Magic Time! Is ‘The Laramie Project’ a Convenient Untruth? Updated On: 8/13/14 at 10:46 PM

[MikeInTheDistrict]

Posted: 8/13/14 at 11:24pm

You may be interested in this article from Luke Brinkes over at MediaMatters:

What's Really Behind Right-Wing Media's Matthew Shepard Trutherism

[MikeInTheDistrict]

Posted: 8/13/14 at 11:31pm

Brinker also did a second article on this topic that goes more in-depth (link below). I post this because, at this time, I am not willing to take Jimenez's revisionist take on Matthew Shepard's murder as compelling evidence to write off THE LARAMIE PROJECT as outright fiction.


Debunking Stephen Jimenez's Effort To De-Gay Matthew Shepard's Murder Updated On: 8/13/14 at 11:31 PM

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 8/13/14 at 11:33pm

The Laramie Project sequel details why this is all right wing hokum and has quotes from a folklorist (something I never knew existed before seeing the second play) explain in detail how these lies become truthy.

[haterobics]

Posted: 8/13/14 at 11:43pm

I read all of that stuff when the book came out, just thought people might be interested with the theater angle. Not really planning to revisit the debate again...

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 8/14/14 at 12:17am

"...I was curious to read this article that wonders if The Laramie Project needs to stop positioning itself as a docudrama."

Well, that WAS a provocative statement.

[Sutton Ross]

Posted: 8/14/14 at 12:30am

Thanks for the article, I've never heard of the author of this book, and the whole theater angle is really interesting.

[HorseTears]

Posted: 8/14/14 at 1:03am

Thanks for starting this thread, hater. I - somehow - missed all of this when the book first came out. Catching up on all of it now. Just curious, has anyone here actually read the book?

[haterobics]

Posted: 8/14/14 at 1:26am

"Well, that WAS a provocative statement."

Or just describing what people might find if they clicked the link?

I don't recall the Laramie Project text enough to comment on that angle, really. That was the only reason I read it, as I always had an issue with that play. I've read enough about the book debate.

"Just curious, has anyone here actually read the book?"

Yeah, I read the book when it came out and found it pretty convincing, also because of interactions I had with some of the players in the book back around the time of the murder. I'm not sure it is 100% true, but neither was the original version.

It strikes me the same as Flagrant Conduct, a book dissecting the Lawrence v. Texas case that made its way to the Supreme Court and was responsible for overturning all sodomy laws nationwide. That book, which I didn't read yet, argues that not only weren't the two men arrested even having sex, they weren't even a couple, which is also the pervasive public narrative of that case, which is that a couple was arrested for having sex in their own home.

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 8/14/14 at 3:16pm

I am already seeing red. I refuse to click that link. I did not find your original post provacative, but I found tour followuo post from 1:26 to be offensive and revealing that you were, and ARE, trying to provoke. SHAME ON YOU.