Fifteen years after Matthew Shepard's murr, Wyomg remas anti-gay | US news | The Guardian

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. 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 NOT MURRED FOR BEG GAY, NEW BOOK CLAIMS

"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.

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

"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. 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. 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.

GAY MAN BEATEN AND LEFT FOR DEAD; 2 ARE CHARGED

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. 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.

MATTHEW SHEPARD, MURRED GAY STUNT, FALLY LAID TO RT

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? ”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, A GAY MAN MURRED 1998, TO BE TERRED AT NATNAL CATHEDRAL

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.

“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. “It mentned at first both Aaron and Rsell, but as the letter went on spoke more about Aaron, mentng that he really did like havg sex wh gay guys, that he wasn't unfaiar wh homosexualy and the gay world. 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.

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

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.

MATTHEW SHEPARD, VICTIM OF ANTI-GAY HATE CRIME, DI

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 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.

A lot has changed for gay Amerins the 20 years sce Matthew Shepard, a stunt at the Universy of Wyomg, was beaten, tortured, tied to a fence and left for ad by two men he had met at a bar.

GAY MAN DI FROM ATTACK, FANNG OUTRAGE AND DEBATE

“Frankly, I don’t unrstand why every state the untry and every untry the world don’t have hate-crime laws, ” said Lléa Newman, an thor and LGBTQ activist who was the keynote speaker for Gay Awarens Week at the Universy of Wyomg the week that Shepard died. “If you want to add another layer to that, ” said Sara Grossman, spokwoman for the Matthew Shepard Foundatn, “there’s almost 30 stat where you n be fired simply for beg gay.

Although Wyomg often bills self as the ''equaly state, '' the state Legislature has repeatedly voted down hate crime legislatn on the ground that would give homosexuals special rights.