Matthew Shepard was abducted, beaten and killed 20 years ago bee he was gay.
Contents:
- THE TTH BEHD AMERI’S MOST FAMO GAY-HATE MURR
- MATTHEW SHEPARD: THE LEGACY OF A GAY LLEGE STUNT 20 YEARS AFTER HIS BTAL MURR
- LAST CALL: BEHD THE TERRIFYG UNTOLD STORY OF NEW YORK'S GAY BAR KILLER
- KILLER ‘JENNY JON’ GAY CSH MURR RELEASED OM PRISON
- SERIAL KILLER WHO PREYED ON GAY MEN, WAS DUBBED 'I-95 KILLER' IS EXECUTED FLORIDA
THE TTH BEHD AMERI’S MOST FAMO GAY-HATE MURR
* gay murdered *
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.
MATTHEW SHEPARD: THE LEGACY OF A GAY LLEGE STUNT 20 YEARS AFTER HIS BTAL MURR
In a new book, journalist Elon Green explor the unr-reported stori of gay men btally murred by a killer who evad jtice for a * gay murdered *
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.
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. Stephen Jimenez is an award-wng journalist and gay man.
LAST CALL: BEHD THE TERRIFYG UNTOLD STORY OF NEW YORK'S GAY BAR KILLER
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.
“Laramie had a big gay populatn. I knew what people’s sexual orientatn was bee my bt iend’s son was gay. ”The police did not vtigate the killers’ relatnship to the gay days after the attack, on 12 October, Matthew died.
KILLER ‘JENNY JON’ GAY CSH MURR RELEASED OM PRISON
”Dark si: anti-gay prottors at Matthew’s funeral. “The se was ed to highlight the fact of vlence agast gay people, ” Wypijewski told me.
”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.
”John Stoltenberg is a gay-rights activist who lived wh the femist wrer Andrea Dwork until her ath 2005. “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.
SERIAL KILLER WHO PREYED ON GAY MEN, WAS DUBBED 'I-95 KILLER' IS EXECUTED FLORIDA
One that ncerns the oft-repeated notn that Wyomg is full of gay-hatg bigots.
The folks Laramie jt had to take , bee a fellow who happened to be gay was murred their town. ”The Matthew Shepard Foundatn stands firm about the murr beg fuelled by homophobic hatred. 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.