Contents:
- THE TTH BEHD AMERI’S MOST FAMO GAY-HATE MURR
- 13 UNTRI WHERE BEG GAY IS LEGALLY PUNISHABLE BY ATH
- MAP SHOWS WHERE IT’S ILLEGAL TO BE GAY – 30 YEARS SCE WHO DECLASSIFIED HOMOSEXUALY AS DISEASE
THE TTH BEHD AMERI’S MOST FAMO GAY-HATE MURR
The horrific killg of Matthew Shepard 1998 is wily seen as one of the worst anti-gay hate crim Amerin history. They pistol whipped him wh a gun then tied him to a fence eezg ndns and set fire to him before leavg him to attack beme a e célèbre: precipated a natnal backlash agast hyper-macho culture and tac tolerance of homophobia. As a rult of Matthew’s ath, many good thgs have happened for the gay muny.
Policians and celebri pledged support and fundg to bat anti-gay hate crime. The Shepard fay have bee mpaigners for gay rights. Jimenez has been acced of beg a revisnist, a cricism ually rerved for extreme rightwg iologu that ny the Holot, and labelled a homophobe.
When he started he was nvced that Matthew died at the hands of homophob, but he soon disvered that Matthew’s tragedy began long before the night he was killed. “This do not make the perfect poster boy for the gay-rights movement, ” says Jimenez.
13 UNTRI WHERE BEG GAY IS LEGALLY PUNISHABLE BY ATH
But this is not the Matthew Shepard who beme a celebrated figure for the gay-rights movement Ameri.
But the town also has a number of mobile home parks at the edg, some more ndown than the eveng of 6 October 1998, Matthew went to the Firi bar, a lol hangout that was purportedly gay-iendly. It was fairly well known the Laramie muny that McKney wouldn’t be one that was strikg out of a sense of homophobia.
They ntacted the Associated Prs and a number of lol gay anisatns that same day.
MAP SHOWS WHERE IT’S ILLEGAL TO BE GAY – 30 YEARS SCE WHO DECLASSIFIED HOMOSEXUALY AS DISEASE
Stephen Jimenez is an award-wng journalist and gay man. So why has he put such time and effort to attemptg to prove that Matthew’s murr was not a hate crime, pecially as has seen him acced of beg an ally to the rightwg Christian fundamentalists who ny the realy of homophobia?
“The view was that homophobic rednecks walked to a bar and saw an obvly gay man wh money and targeted him and beat him to ath for that reason, ” says Jimenez. That plit the origal story of two strangers walkg to a bar and targetg Matthew – someone they did not know – bee he was gay.
“Rsell Henrson ed to hang around wh gay people, ” Johnson told me.