I performed The Laramie Project during my Senior year of high school. It was such a moving piece that it certainly shocked me that it was my first time hearing about the Defense of Marriage Act and Prop 8. While I admit that I don't avidly follow politics, it still shocked me that I had no prior contact to gay rights issues before doing a play in which someone was killed for being gay.

The reason why I'm picking this topic isn't limited to Laramie alone. I want that to be my major focus, but I want to examine gay rights in general as well. I've studied lots of different social movements on gaining rights for voting, on education reform, and on achieving the basic civil rights. Already in my studies I've noticed that homophobia and gay rights were very taboo subjects throughout history, but now it's becoming an everyday conversation. It's in the earliest forms of becoming a social movement. I'm always fascinated as to why violence sparks most social movements, but more importantly I want to look at why it isn't taught in schools. To begin, maybe I'd talk about how we can even begin to talk about gay rights in the classroom.

Especially since Facebook users united to bring forth a WUNC display that correlates with a social movement. We might just be in the earliest stages of the latest American social movement to take flight.