ABSTRACT

This essay provides an intimate account of what it means to be a queer student at the University of Wyoming in post-Shepard Laramie. White speaks to experiences that have been less visible in relation to Matthew Shepard’s murder: those of out of state college students who arrive as young adults and live in the town from anywhere between two to six years. White also reflects on an earlier piece she wrote after a year in the MFA program at the University of Wyoming, which looked at the story of Matthew Shepard’s murder as a national and local narrative about violence, collective responsibility, and reformation. In her essay for this volume, White examines the conflict between “cooperative representation and incorrigible authenticity.” Identifying as a visibly gender-nonconforming “dyke,” White describes her experiences of feeling both oppressed and empowered while living in Laramie. White’s account, while framed by Matthew Shepard’s murder, is personal; she speaks to the kind of affective violence that the mythical presence of Shepard’s death had and has on LGBTQ publics.