The two were shot by a homophobic man while they were hiking the Appalachian Trail in Pennsylvania. The author describes her fears of a homophobic justice system, and her concerns that she won't be believed or respected by the personnel in that system. The text includes statistics about hate crimes and the justice system's responses to them, which provide support for the reasonableness of her fears. Some students are clearly very uncomfortable with this topic and are surprised to find it covered in a Criminal Justice course. The overall benefit of assigning the book is clear even if the discussions it elicits aren't always as deep as I'd like them to be.
Students read a sympathetic account of a hate crime as told by the victim.
The students like the victim, Ms. Brenner, and they feel sad about the death of her lover. The two women are good people who did not deserve to be shot, even though they were lesbians. This is confusing to many students and contradicts their previously held beliefs about lesbians as immoral or perverted people. The other benefit of the book is that it describes how the law enforcement officers, rather than being disgusted by Ms. Brenner's sexual orientation, respect her and apologize for their profession's reputation of hostility. The students often express surprise that the police are as accepting as they are.