Matthew Shepard was abducted, beaten and killed 20 years ago bee he was gay.
Contents:
- MATTHEW SHEPARD: THE LEGACY OF A GAY LLEGE STUNT 20 YEARS AFTER HIS BTAL MURR
- THE TTH BEHD AMERI’S MOST FAMO GAY-HATE MURR
- QUEER TE CRIME STORI OF THE PAST SHOW HOW THE PRS STOKED FEAR OF GAY MEN
- HOMOPHOBIC HATE CRIME: BEATEN-UP FOR BEG GAY
MATTHEW SHEPARD: THE LEGACY OF A GAY LLEGE STUNT 20 YEARS AFTER HIS BTAL MURR
Twenty years ago, Matthew Shepard was a "smart, funny" 21-year-old, no different than any other young man that was an "ordary kid who wanted to make the world a better place, " his parents October 1998, that all changed, when the openly gay llege stunt was abducted, beaten and tied to a fence life end a few days later, and wh me a wispread awarens of the dangers that members of the LGBTQ muny face every day. The homophobic btal killg also served as a talyst for progrs Ameri's laws and the two s that have passed, however, remas batable how far the untry has e sce the shock of that crime. (MORE: 'Gay panic' fense still ed vlence s may be banned by new feral bill)McKney h Shepard about 20 tim the head and face wh the end of the pistol, Marsn said, before the two stole Shepard's sho, got their tck and drove back to town.
Agast the gay muny until after he grew up to bee very terted ternatnal human rights, particularly women's rights the Middle East and Asia, and he studied polil science, said Marsn. Members of the Wtboro Baptist Church protted the funeral, picketg wh anti-gay Fred Phelps and his parishners traveled om Kansas to Laramie for the funeral and trial, prottg wh brightly lored signs and spewg hatred.
McKney went to trial, and fense attorneys argued his vlent actns were "gay panic" -- a reactn to Shepard makg a sexual advance. McKney has cled to speak to ABC News while Henrson did not immediately rpond to a requt for WashgtonShepard's murr shed a light on the spe of feral hate crime laws, which at the time did not clu sexual orientatn or genr gay activists monstrate the streets of North Hollywood to prott agast the ath of Wyomg Universy stunt Mathew Shepard, Oct. "Beyond the feral hate crime law, the years sce Matthew Shepard's ath, among the most substantive legislative ws for the LGBTQ muny were the repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell 2010, so gay ary members n serve openly whout fear of beg dismissed, and the legalizatn of same-sex marriage across the untry 2015.
THE TTH BEHD AMERI’S MOST FAMO GAY-HATE MURR
Michael Loccisano/Getty Imag, FILEFor Judy Shepard, one of the bt signs of cultural progrs is seeg Gay Straight Alliance groups rampg up schools.
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.
QUEER TE CRIME STORI OF THE PAST SHOW HOW THE PRS STOKED FEAR OF GAY MEN
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. 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. 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. ”The police did not vtigate the killers’ relatnship to the gay days after the attack, on 12 October, Matthew died.
HOMOPHOBIC HATE CRIME: BEATEN-UP FOR BEG GAY
”Wypijewski thks the reason some sectns of the gay muny are so angry about the Jimenez book is obv: “Jimenez has taken away their angel, and there is the reflexive sense that as a muny s sufferg was beg at last regnised. “Keepg Matthew as the poster boy of gay-hate crime and ignorg the full tragedy of his story has been the agenda of many gay-movement lears, ” he says. Henson told me he believ that The Book of Matt is “nothg more than the tth” and that he was “never certa” that the murr was an anti-gay hate crime.
Photograph: Evan Agosti/Getty Imag Photograph: Evan Agosti/Getty ImagOn 16 September the Casper Star Tribune, the lol paper Matthew’s home town, published an edorial claimg that an award Jimenez had recently received for his book “serv rejectn”, sayg: “From the begng there have been those who want to ignore the sadistic homophobic motiv of Shepard’s attackers and stead sist the matter was a dg al gone bad. Matthew Shepard’s murr will always be, for some, a symbol of the hatred many lbians and gay men face the US and beyond. But the mystery remas – not so much why Matthew died, but why the gay muny, after almost five s of mpaigng for equal rights, reli so fundamentally on the image of the perfect martyr to reprent the e.
Acrdg to Polch, a cultural historian and profsor of global liberal studi at New York Universy, the victim blamg evint acunts of Ivar’s murr was typil of the way the prs vered crim agast gay or prumed-gay men between World War I and the Stonewall uprisg 1969.