Matthew Shepard’s legacy lives on 15 years later
Publisher’s note: A documentary film about the life of Matthew Shepard will be shown at Lake Tahoe Community College on Oct. 12 at 7:30pm in the Duke Theatre. Tickets are $5 at the door. The LTCC Theater Arts Department will present the play “The Laramie Project: 10 Years Later” in November.
By John M. Glionna, Los Angeles Times
LARAMIE, Wyo. — Every year, the day sneaks on up Judy Shepard to deliver its sucker punch from the past: The 12th of October. The day Matthew died.
“It hits you and you say to yourself: Oh, this is the day,” she says. “This is why I feel so terrible.”
Fifteen years ago this week, gay college student Matthew Shepard was pistol-whipped and left for dead: unconscious, barely alive, lashed to a jagged wooden fence outside this small prairie city by two men disgusted by his homosexuality. A passerby mistook the diminutive, 105-pound Shepard for a scarecrow — a forlorn and unthinkable image that still haunts a generation of Americans.
Judy Shepard refuses to associate her son with that image or with the date that he died, six days after the attack. Instead, she summons memories of her eldest boy on Dec. 1, his birthday, celebrating his love for politics, languages and the spectacle of the musical “The Phantom of the Opera.”
On the anniversary of her son’s death, Shepard thinks not of the past, but of the future. As co-founder of the Matthew Shepard Foundation and a tireless advocate for gay rights, she’s hosting the annual mid-October fundraiser at the group’s Denver headquarters to support its work promoting tolerance. That’s when she tries to gauge just how far Wyoming and the nation have come in their acceptance of others in the years since Matthew’s murder.
Often the answer isn’t comforting.
Check out Stephan Jimenez’s book, “The Book of Matt” or go to BookTV.org to see Stephan Jimenez’s podcast talking about his book. He has a very different slant on the tragedy.
The S. Jimenez book does fill a niche in the Matthew Stafford story and will probably sell pretty good-if you want to feel better about your homophobia be sure to get a copy-kinda like listening to rush makes bigots and woman haters feel not so alone-or listening to G. Beck to make you feel better about Ted Cruz and the crazy domionists shutting down the gov’t and on and on down the road to teabag
Umm, Teatotal, spewing insults doesn’t answer the question about what the true story was here.
I don’t know why the poor kid was murdered. But refusing to acknowledge that he was a meth dealer just to promote a political narrative is stupid.
You accuse everyone who disagrees with you of being ignorant. At the same time, you encourage ignorance of the facts. I don’t get you.
Whether or not Matthew was a drug dealer is a red herring to distract us from the reality of this tragedy. It doesn’t matter. Nobody deserves the violent death that Matthew experienced, not for ANY reason. May peace and love prevail.
If anyone wants to see the ignorant homophobia that is described by TeaTotal in the post above you can view the exact words of some of them and their hateful, delusional worldview on youtube videos and articles here: http://www.rightwingwatch.org
The whole lineup of lunatic fringe politicians, religious fanatics and hate radio sociopaths was in rare form at the “Values Voters Summit”. The headliner was Ted Cruz and the adulation and seething hatred for the LBGT community, the President and anything progressive/liberal from the crowd is a sight to see. These people are twisted and dangerous and they have already infested every segment of our lives. These are not just folks with a different opinion, or most of the people from the local church down the street, these are the dominionists and their cohorts the teabaggers and they must be stopped from doing any more damage to our country.
If anyone considers this a personal insult then I repeat the adage: “If the shoe fits, wear it.”
Who is accusing whom of hatred and bigotry??
“Who is accusing whom of hatred and bigotry??”
Says the ‘proud islamophobe’.
Tell us again, is homosexuality a choice or not?
*eats popcorn*
Give us all a break please. Who cares really? Does it really matter if someone has other sexual preferences than you? If this is on your agenda at all, obviously you are missing out on the things that really matter.
What’s your point, Fish?
No, I don’t believe homosexuality is a choice. I’ve never said it was. I have relatives who are homosexuals. And they’re libertarians too.
I do not spew hatred against those who live differently from me. I try to keep my challenges to the issues at hand, not at the people making their points.
Don’t choke on your popcorn.
Do they know about how you promote islamophobic propaganda?
And think they choose to be gay?
No self respecting anyone-different-than-you should keep you close.
Libertarians don’t think the bible belongs in government. You are so full of it.
You need to learn to read the words on the page instead of the ones in your imagination.
So you never promoted an islamophobic propaganda film? Saying you were a ‘proud islamophobe’?
You’re a bigot. Now we need to know if you are a liar too.
You wouldn’t be close to any homosexuals if they weren’t related.
Time to move on and stop the name calling.
LTN staff