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remembering Mathew Shepherd


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Death of Matthew Shepherd

 

The Death Of Matthew Shepherd

 

The murder of a college student named Matthew Shepherd would become one of the most famous examples of a hate crime in recent history. On October 6, 1998, Aaron McKinney and Russell A. Henderson entered a Laramie Wyoming bar which was known as a place where homosexuals often hung out. The two men left the bar with the company of Matthew Shepherd, who they drove to an open field. After being tied to a fence and beaten within an inch of his life, he was left for dead in the near freezing temperatures. The two men had also stolen his wallet and shoes. Eighteen hours later, he was found by two passing motorcyclists who thought at first that Shepherd was a scarecrow because of the way he was positioned on the fence. Shepherd was flown via helicopter to Poudre Valley Hospital (approximately a ninety mile drive in Fort Collins, Colorado) where he remained in critical condition for several days.

 

Twenty-two year old political science student Matthew Shepherd devoted his life, his friends say, to the fight for human rights. He was a relatively small guy, and it was reported later that he had been beaten up on two previous occasions because he was gay. The more severe of the other two attacks had left his jaw broken the year before.

 

Matthew had spend many of his growing up years traveling the world - mainly because of his father's job as an oil rig safety inspector. After graduating high school, Matthew settled in the area between Denver, Colorado (where he worked as a waiter and in retail stores) and Laramie, Wyoming where he went to school. He chose Laramie because that was where his father had gone.

 

Three days later, four arrests were made in connection with the murder of Matthew Shepherd. This included Aaron McKinney, Russell Henderson and Chastity Pasley (who lived with Henderson) and Kristin Price - the later two arrested as accessories because they helped the two men dispose of the bloody clothes and helped cover up their crime.

 

Police Commander Dave O'Malley stated that he believed that robbery was part of the motive since Shepherd's wallet had been stolen, but said that Shepherd was most likely chosen because he was gay. He told a reporter from the associated press that they had a few such hate crimes in Laramie, "But nothing anywhere near this."

 

With Matthew Shepherd still in a coma at Poudre Valley Hospital, the political hoopla started full force. Gay Rights groups everywhere started calling attention to the fact that the Matthew Shepherd case demonstrated a need to adopt hate crime legislation - anti-gay groups started fighting this because they believed this meant gays would have some sort of special rights. It may be interesting to note that several days prior to Shepherd's beating, several anti-gay groups had begun public campaigns in the Colorado and Wyoming areas. This was also several days before National Coming Out Day - a day devoted to lending support for those who wish to come out of the closet as gay or lesbian.

 

At 12:53 a.m., on Monday, October 12, 1998, Matthew Shepherd died as a result of his injuries with his family by his side.

 

The Aftermath

 

As Wyoming investigators tried to continue to build their case against the four people arrested for beating Matthew Shepherd (and covering it up) the news media was filled with as many stories as they could fit about Shepherd, gay rights, the military's Don't Ask Don't Tell policy, and other such gay related topics. The internet started to fill up with Matthew Shepherd related websites and memorials. His friends publicly cried out about the need for legislation.

 

The National Youth Advocacy Coalition released a paper which included Facts About Gay Youth which included statistics like:

80 Percent of gay, lesbian, and bisexual kids report verbal abuse

44 Percent of gay, lesbian, and bisexual kids report threats of attack

17 Percent of gay, lesbian, and bisexual kids have reported being attacked.

66.7 Percent of gay, lesbian and bisexual youth were threatened/injured with a weapon at school in the past year

62.3 Percent of gay, lesbian and bisexual youth were in a physical fight in the past year

 

The National Consortium of Anti-Violence Projects also released several reports. Many of these released information they had gathered involving hate crime statistics, but with the disclaimer that the figures were most likely extremely low since the victims of anti-gay hate crimes (weather legally designated as such or not) were not very likely to report their crimes in any official capacity. They also stated, however, that Shepherd's murder had encouraged many more people to report the hate crimes against them.

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