Matthew Shepard, a gay man murred 1998, to be terred at Natnal Cathedral

Contents:

• THE TTH BEHD AMERI’S MOST FAMO GAY-HATE MURR
• MATTHEW SHEPARD NOT MURRED FOR BEG GAY, NEW BOOK CLAIMS
• MATTHEW SHEPARD: THE LEGACY OF A GAY LLEGE STUNT 20 YEARS AFTER HIS BTAL MURR
• GAY MAN BEATEN AND LEFT FOR DEAD; 2 ARE CHARGED
• MATTHEW SHEPARD, MURRED GAY STUNT, FALLY LAID TO RT
• MATTHEW SHEPARD, A GAY MAN MURRED 1998, TO BE TERRED AT NATNAL CATHEDRAL
• FIFTEEN YEARS AFTER MATTHEW SHEPARD'S MURR, WYOMG REMAS ANTI-GAY
• MATTHEW SHEPARD, VICTIM OF ANTI-GAY HATE CRIME, DI
• GAY MAN DI FROM ATTACK, FANNG OUTRAGE AND DEBATE

THE TTH BEHD AMERI’S MOST FAMO GAY-HATE MURR

"WARNING: This feature ntas language that some rears may fd nights earlier, on Tuday 6 October 1998, Matthew Shepard walked alone to a dive bar ptn, Judy and Dennis Shepard at the Matthew Shepard Foundatn Denver last weekThe openly gay Universy of Wyomg hman had jt met up wh iends to plan LGBT awarens week on the town's he uldn't persua them to jo him for a beer the Firi Lounge, the 21-year-old somehow end up chattg to two roofg workers, Rsell Henrson and Aaron McKney, both the same age as pair saw an easy mark the 5ft 2, slightly built County Sheriff Dave O'Malley, who was lead vtigator the se, says: "McKney's own statement said he and Rsell went to the bathroom at the Firi bar and they planned to act like they were gay to try to ga Matthew's nfince. It is a momento honour not even acrd to another proment gay martyr, Harvey Milk, the San Francis polician assassated the Denver cy centre offic of the LGBT rights foundatn named after her son, Judy Shepard, 66, is fightg back predicted Friday's ceremony would probably be more emotnal for her than the funeral bee she felt so "numb" immediately after her son's source, Getty ImagImage ptn, A vigil for Shepard New York Cy 1998The origal service, amid snow flurri the fay's hometown of Casper, Wyomg, on 16 October 1998, was picketed by an anti-gay preacher om Kansas.

MATTHEW SHEPARD NOT MURRED FOR BEG GAY, NEW BOOK CLAIMS

Reverend Fred Phelps of Wtboro Baptist Church and his flock, who clud children, held plards dbed wh homophobic slurs and shouted to mourners that the ad stunt was burng Shepard, 69, remembers law enforcement makg him wear a bullet-proof vt to step outsi the Epispal church, which had been sured by bomb-sniffg dogs. Shepard's murr stoked the perceptn of Cowboy Country and flyover stat general as a danger zone for gay at his office the cy of Cheyenne, McKney trial lawyer Dn Ctis matas was a robbery gone bad, even while he accepts sexual orientatn was a factor.

MATTHEW SHEPARD: THE LEGACY OF A GAY LLEGE STUNT 20 YEARS AFTER HIS BTAL MURR

"However, McKney's own gay-bashg rhetoric damns him the ey of source, Getty ImagImage ptn, Thoands gathered outsi the US Capol for a vigil after Shepard's athDurg a police nfsn, he said he began to attack Shepard bee the stunt had put his hand on his leg durg the r ri. " Yet another statement to police, he said Shepard simply looked like he was about to grope the jailhoe after his arrt, McKney reportedly wrote to another mate's wife: "Beg a verry [sic] dnk homofobick [sic] I flipped out and began to pistol whip the fag wh my gun, ready at hand. "At trial, McKney's lawyers argued that Shepard had ma their client fly to a rage by touchg his the judge dismissed this "gay panic" a legal strategy - where crimal fendants s of vlent asslt argue they were provoked by an unwanted same-sex sexual advance - is still admissible all but three US stat, acrdg to the Williams Instute at UCLA School of Law.

GAY MAN BEATEN AND LEFT FOR DEAD; 2 ARE CHARGED

Sheriff O'Malley rejects any attempt to downplay the anti-gay element the source, Getty ImagImage ptn, Rev Fred Phelps and his flock prott Laramie 1999"We have never disunted ever that the ial motivatn was robbery, " he says. The moment was re-enacted as a climactic scene 2002 HBO movie The Laramie the angel actn, was replited two years ago Orlando, Florida, when Wtboro Baptist Church tried to dispt the funerals of gay people killed a mass shootg at the Pulse nightclub. "All of them are that circle of faiary of extreme right-wg relig attus, " she says of the print's bet, " particular to the gay muny, to anybody who's not straight whe Christian.

MATTHEW SHEPARD, MURRED GAY STUNT, FALLY LAID TO RT

However, Sheriff O'Malley mak clear that theory is not supported by the source, Getty ImagImage ptn, Judy Shepard (L) at the Whe Hoe 2009 for the passage of the anti-hate crim bill named after her son and a black man killed by whe supremacistsThe Old Buckhorn Bar & Parlor Laramie has a mirror pocked by a bullet hole, and walls that bristle wh mounted antelope, buffalo and patron, Jt Bmmet - who proudly scrib himself as "third class whe trash" - says US progrs on gay rights sce Shepard's ath is to be mend. " Back at the end of the last lennium, many Wyomg apparently thought gay people were as rare on the high plas as jackalop, the state's mythil antlered ptn, (L-R) Universy of Wyomg LGBT stunts Js Fahlsg, Carlos Gonzal and Rihanna KelverShepard's murr - together wh the 2005 gay wboy love story Brokeback Mounta - helped dispel that Connolly, a Universy of Wyomg genr and women's studi lecturer, explas.

She reunts facg a "horrific" backlash last year om angry voters when she troduced a gay rights source, Getty ImagImage ptn, A dirt road near where Shepard was left to dieA Democrat, she is one of a handful of female lawmakers Wyomg. Edor’s note: Twenty years have passed sce Matthew Shepard, a 21-year-old gay llege stunt, died after beg robbed, beaten and left tied to a fence the ld outsi Laramie, Wyomg, five days before. Judy and Dennis Shepard had appealed publicly for a “peaceful, dignified” service for their son Matthew, 21, a slight, 5-foot-2 llege stunt who had met his grisly fate, police say, at the hands of two young men who btally beat him, tied him to a fence and left him for ad, at least part bee he happened to be gay.

Matthew had jt pleted his sophomore year high school when his parents reloted to Sdi Arabia, where his father worked as an oil-rig spector, and enrolled him at a boardg school Lugano, Swzerland. 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.

MATTHEW SHEPARD, A GAY MAN MURRED 1998, TO BE TERRED AT NATNAL CATHEDRAL

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. 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?

FIFTEEN YEARS AFTER MATTHEW SHEPARD'S MURR, WYOMG REMAS ANTI-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.

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, VICTIM OF ANTI-GAY HATE CRIME, DI

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.

(AP/David Zalubowski) (AP1999)Fifteen years after Matthew Shepard was tied to a fence and beaten to ath Wyomg, beg a powerful symbol for the gay muny's fight for hate crim legislatn, a new book claims the llege stunt was murred for “reasons far more plited” than beg homosexual. Stephen Jimenez’s “The Book of Matt: Hidn Tths About the Murr of Matthew Shepard” claims a 13-year vtigatn — cludg trips to Laramie, Wyo., and terviews wh more than 100 sourc — ntradicts police ttimony and natnal nsens that the Universy of Wyomg hman was targeted by Aaron McKney and Rsell Henrson 1998 bee he was gay.

GAY MAN DI FROM ATTACK, FANNG OUTRAGE AND DEBATE

“Basilly the letter was sayg that the fense raised by Aaron McKney's fense team of 'gay panic' was false and the evince that was ced for that was that Aaron McKney had been a male htler, that he was faiar wh gay guys gay bars, ” Jimenez told the webse.