October 12, 2018, was the 20 year anniversary of the brutal slaying of Matthew Shepherd. [1] At the time, he was a 21-year-old, gay student at the University of Wyoming student who was robbed, attacked, tied to a fence and left to die in the cold outside of Laramie, Wyoming. [2] Matthew’s murder and the slaying of James Byrd Jr., a black man who was brutally murdered by white supremacists four months prior to Shepard, led their families to advocate for federal hate crimes laws, enacted in 2009 as the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act (HCPA).[1] This legislation creates “federal criminal law which criminalizes willfully causing bodily injury because of actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability of any person.” [3] It also provides funding for local and state agencies to investigate and prosecute hate crimes. [3] In addition, Matthew’s family created the Matthew Shepard Foundation, an advocacy organization for gay youth, with a mission to “strive to replace hate with understanding, compassion, and acceptance.” [4] Judy Shepard, Matthew’s mother and founding president of his namesake foundation, now devotes her time advocating for civil rights and social justice, traveling around the country speaking to audiences to make the world a more accepting place regardless of an individual’s identity. [4] Fearing that their sons grave would be desecrated, the Shepard’s have waited 20 years to bury Matthew’s ashes; he will be interred at the Washington National Cathedral on October 26, 2018. [5]
For more information, about Matthew Shepard, visit:
https://www.hrc.org/blog/20-years-after-matthew-shepards-murder-lgbtq-people-still-face-violence
https://people.com/crime/matthew-shepard-death-anniversary-20-years/
https://www.justice.gov/crt/matthew-shepard-and-james-byrd-jr-hate-crimes-prevention-act-2009-0
https://www.matthewshepard.org/
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/11/us/matthew-shepard-ashes-cathedral.html