TheRainbowTimesMass.com • The Rainbow Times • 7
March 8, 2018 - April 4, 2018
By: Al Gentile & Nick Collins/TRT Reporter and Intern, Respectively
IN THE LIMELIGHT
BOSTON—Speaking through tears, activist Judy Shepard revealed the pain and hope fueling her for nearly two decades in remembrance of her deceased gay son, Matthew, who was slain in 1998 during a brutal hate crime. “We all feel compelled to do this work around Matt’s name because this is what he would have wanted to do,” Shepard said. “He’s not here, so we’re doing it.” On January 30, the Anti-Defamation League of New England (ADL; https://goo.gl/kynCCC), as part of its “Breaking Barriers” speaker series, hosted Shepard. Speaking to a packed room of about 100 people, she told her story, and that of her son, in the context of her work for equality, awareness, and acceptance. On the evening of October 6, 1998, Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson lured Matthew to a Laramie, Wyoming field and proceeded to pistol whip and torture the 21year-old openly-gay college student, reportedly after he made a sexual advance towards one of the men. Matthew was left tied to a fence with severe head injuries after the attack and was discovered the next day by a cyclist. He was in a coma for six days before being pronounced dead on October 12. “Some saw this as a turning point,” said Shepard. In the days following the attack, candlelight vigils were held around the world— and, at that time, in Boston, around 3,000 people gathered on the steps of the State House. Although both were eligible for the death penalty, McKinney, after his parents brokered a deal with the district attorney, was sentenced to two consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole. Henderson—“a follower,” as described by Shepard—pled guilty to murder and received the same sentence. Since then, Shepard has advocated for new legislation protecting LGBTQ people, given presentations all over the world on acceptance, and promoted “The Laramie Project” (https://goo.gl/6kLp2R), a play that explored the reaction to her son’s death. “It’s been 20 years of rewarding, frustrating, and sad, and joyous work, all at the same time,” she said. Robert Trestan, executive director of the Anti-Defamation League’s Boston office, facilitated the conversation. “Breaking Barriers,” he said, “is about using the power of communication to foster understanding and action. Part of the mission here is to spread a message to adults, but most importantly to students that you can make a difference, that you can stand up. Part of this speaker series is to bring together people who have made an impact. One person can make a difference if they choose to do so. We want everyone to feel inspired and empowered to feel they can do it.”
PHOTO: TRT/STEVE JEWETT
Judy Shepard ‘Breaks Barriers’ in Boston
Judy Shepard
“[If] you know your neighbor is gay, it should make it harder for you to be a homophobe” Throughout the evening, Shepard made clear one of the guiding principles in her work was to tell Matthew’s story, and that personal stories are crucial to fostering acceptance of the LGBTQ community. “I still think one of the turning points for the gay community, in particular, was young people, everybody, coming out and telling their story,” she said. “It’s easy to hate an abstract; it’s hard to hate a personal. [If] you know your neighbor is gay, it should make it harder for you to be a homophobe.” She spent time painting a comprehensive picture of her son, allowing the audience to step into her world as a parent, and into Matthew’s world as a person. “He was very small. He was about 5’2”, and weighed about 105 [pounds] on a good day,” she said. “He was very vain, and he loved to wear Ralph Lauren … That’s where he bought all his clothes. He was very preppy.” She described Matthew as a nearly ubiquitous presence around school. As someone who was a friend to all, and someone with extremely strong opinions, she said she was often more worried about Matthew’s personality getting him into trouble than being targeted for his sexual orientation “What I worried about more was his desire to argue with people. He was very opinionated, and if he disagreed with you, he told you so,” she said. “Not that he was gay, but that he was argumentative, and he just didn’t back down. He was just really annoying sometimes. “He thought he could sing, but he couldn’t,” she said, eliciting laughter from the crowd. “He thought he could dance, but he really couldn’t do that either, but he had high hopes.” Joe Whipple called Shepard’s speech a, “very moving thing.” “The thing that struck me the most,” Whipple explained, “was that after so many years of progress, there’s [this] backsliding that’s going on right now that we have to be aware of. Also, it was interesting that all of this was bubbling under the surface durRead the rest of this story at TheRainbowTimesMass.com