On October 7, 1998, a young gay man was discovered bound to a fence in the hills outside Laramie, Wyoming, savagely beaten and left to die in an act of hate that shocked the nation. Matthew Shepards death became a national symbol of intolerance, but for the people of Laramie the event was deeply personal, and its they we hear in this stunningly effective theater piece, a deeply complex portrait of a community.From the Trade Paperback edition.