Friday, October 12, 2012

We Lost Matthew Shepard 14 Years Ago Today.


The openly gay student had been tied to a split-rail fence after being pistol-whipped by two men who left him there to die. The 21-year-old was found about 18 hours later by a bicyclist who thought he was a scarecrow, according to the Matthew Shepard Foundation webpage.
Aaron McKinney was convicted of murder, kidnapping and robbery while Russell Henderson was convicted of murder and kidnapping. Both men are serving life sentences.
Shepard’s death became a watershed moment for the gay rights and anti-bullying movement.
Here are some of the initiatives that were triggered by his murder:
 • His parents created the Matthew Shepard Foundation which advocates for gay and transgendered youth, including the operation of a website for LGBT issues calledMatthew’s Place. His mother Judy became a full time gay rights advocate and gives speeches across the United States. She also wrote a book about her son’s death, The Meaning of Matthew.
 •  Universities and foundations across the U.S. founded scholarships in his name, including one from the Eychaner Foundation for students in Iowa and a scholarship atWeber State University in Utah.
 • A New York City company — the Tectonic Theater Project — created a play entitled the The Laramie Project which looked at how the Wyoming town of Laramie where Shepard was a student grappled with his horrific murder.
The play opened in 2000 off-Broadway. It became a HBO film. A second play — The Laramie Project: Epilogue — was written in 2008. It premiered on Oct. 12, 2009.
 • A made-for-TV movie was aired in 2002, bringing national attention to the murder and the whole issue of gay hate crimes and bullying. Countless songs, poems, stories and reflections were written by friends and strangers alike in tribute to Matthew over the years.
The federal law makes it a specific crime to willfuly cause bodily harm when such a crime is committed because of the “actual or perceived religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability of any person.”

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