Three years after the brutal murder of a gay college student from the University of Wyoming, students across the country still feel the rippling effects.
Beth Loffreda, assistant professor of English and adjunct professor of women’s studies at the University of Wyoming, spoke yesterday at the Ohio Union on her book “Losing Matt Shepard: Life and Politics in the Aftermath of Anti-Gay Murder.”
The residents of Wyoming seemed to live in a comfortable amnesia, Loffreda said. The residents had a way of forgetting who and what was around them.
“They would preach that they lived by the saying ‘live and let live,’ ” Loffreda said. “But what they really were saying was ‘if we don’t ask, then don’t tell.’ “
Many of the vigils held in Shepard’s honor were only attended by the white residents of Laramie, Loffreda said.
“Many of the minorities within the community were afraid to go out in public,” Loffreda said. “Many of them left town for fear of what happened to Matt would happen to them as well.”
After Shepard’s death, biased crime legislation was passed in Laramie, said Loffreda. But there were not harsher penalties for these types of crimes, and it still has not been proven his death was a hate crime.
Loffreda was the first of 10 distinguished speakers to kick off the Second Annual President and Provost’s Diversity Lecture Series.
Despite the name of the series, neither the president or the provost was in attendance, much to the dismay of audience members.
Barry Landeros, an Ethnic Student Services coordinator, voiced his concern about the president and provost’s lack of concern for diversity.
“Discussion about sexuality can sometimes be uncomfortable,” Landeros said. “But the message given by the University Administrators by not attending is disturbing.”
Frank W. Hale Jr, coordinator of the series as well as emeritus vice provost for minority affairs and professor of communication at the university, said the president and provost had prior commitments.
Loffreda made no mention of the missing president and provost, but focused her lecture on the disturbing events following Shepard’s death, and the view the people of Wyoming had about gay and lesbian life.
Loffreda left the audience with a lesson she has learned since the death of Shepard.
“Tolerance is not a feeling,” Loffreda said. “Feelings need to be substituted with actions.”
The next lecturer to speak in the series will be Joyce Fletcher, professor of management at Simmons College and senior research scholar at Wellesley College. She will discuss gender, power and relational practice at work in the Ohio Union on Oct. 10.
“The series provides a wide range of topics that should be of interest to the faculty, staff and students of Ohio State as well as many members of the wider community,” Hale said. “These are topics of compelling social significance, presented by nationally respected experts.”
The lecture series will span the entire school year.
The series is sponsored by the Office of the President and Office of Academic Affairs. Cosponsors are the Division of Student Affairs (Disability Services, Ethnic Student Services, Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgendered Student Services), the Women’s Place and the Melton Center for Jewish Studies.
All lectures are free and open to the public, and begin at 9 a.m. in the Conference Theater at the Ohio Union.
