I'm back at Coal Creek Coffee Co. I just met up with Travis, a member of the LGBTA board. I got back to my hotel after meeting with Beth and felt it was too early to call it a night, so I tried Trish Steger- it was an incorrect number- and then I tried Travis, someone that Beth recommended I should talk to. I'm realizing that living with your partner in Laramie is one thing, trying to be gay and single is quite another. Travis came to Laramie after Matt was murdered. He feels comfortable being out and open here, as opposed to his hometown in rural Wyoming. He says that Matt is always in the thoughts of the gay community here.

Breaking into this narrative for just a second to inform you of my surrounding: there is a man in a black cowboy hat with a guitar singing in front of me. He's pretty good for a country western singer, I actually liked his song, "Western Plains." And then the other thing that is distracting me at the moment is a Muslim woman who has entered the shop wearing a headscarf. Zubaida Ula? Probably not. Is that bad that The Laramie Project leads me to believe that there is one Islamic feminist in Laramie? Probably.

So Travis tells me that Matt is always in their thoughts. The anniversary of his death coincides with National Coming Out Day and they must always think of both remembering Matthew and celebrating Gay Awareness Week. The turn out for his organization sounds better than the turn out for GW Pride events. He seems happy here. But I don't think I would be. He drives one hour to Fort Collins for only one gay bar, Denver is two hours away. He complains about not being able to get on-campus housing with his boyfriend. I feel welcome here but I'd feel suffocated in a small town after a while. That's why I left one in the first place. But that's what people seem to love about Laramie- that small town quality.

Is that Zubaida and am I being a chicken or would I embarrass myself?

I haven't talked about Beth. Beth Loffreda had such an amazing presence. She was much cooler and younger than I was thinking she was, we had a fantastic conversation, she had striking insights on these events and The Laramie Project. She had very close ties to Leigh, Greg, and Stephen and talked with them consistently about their intellectual and artistic pursuits. We talked about too many things for me to mention them here, you'll just have to wait for the thesis. But she graciously offered to take me to the airport at 6:30 AM on Sunday. And offered to read drafts of my thesis if I wanted a critical eye. And said I could freely critique her book, smash it to smithereens if I wanted and it would be okay. Very happy we were able to meet.