10 years later, Matthew Shepard lives in remembrance

The brutal beating murder of 21-year-old Matthew Shepard still haunts and inspires the LGBT community and beyond especially on this day of October 12th. This day 10 years ago, the young man was robbed, pistol whipped, and tied to a fence in a remote, rural area, where he was left to die by Russell Arthur Henderson and Aaron James McKinney, who had offered to take Matthew home from the bar that they had all met that day.

Since that decade ago, the LGBT movement has progressed quite impressively but still today, hate crimes against people for their sexual orientation or gender identity is appalling. There have been men and women killed for how they identify, like Lawrence King, Sakia Gunn, Gwen Araujo, Brandon Teena, and many more. What made Matthew Shepard's death so different? The thing was that it wasn't and he wasn't. He was an intelligent young person, attending University, with a winning smile and personality. He was friendly and attractive, picture perfect, except for his sexuality, which seemed enough to make him ugly and insignificant. It was assumed that LGBT people are societal deviants or "undesirables", making them seem as though they were bizarre entities that floated around and polluted the heterosexual mainstream. People had an idea of what they looked like based on stereotypes, but hardly faced one, it seemed that when Henderson and McKinney discovered of Matt's sexual orientation, they panicked. This is a legitimate legal defense called "gay panic", when a person reacts badly to the advances of somebody of the same sex that there is violence. There is no evidence that Matt had ever made a pass at either of them. However, the two men had badly hurt Matthew and left him on a post where he was discovered in a coma, by a cyclist who mistook him for a scarecrow. I had found the actual story that was put out at the time about Matthew's attack and read related stories, like one called "College homecoming float mocks homosexuals". It was Colorado State University that had a float with a scarecrow and anti-gay graffiti on it... at the time, in a hospital nearby, Matthew was dying. I will not go on to explain it because I am digressing, but I was deeply shocked by the homophobic presence at the time. There was also a controversial Church that still thrives today on the same values it was founded on in the 1950s, that picketed at Matthew's funeral. Westboro Baptist Church most proudly waves their signs of "God Hates Fags", "AIDS Cures Fags", and the like, passing them and shirts down to even young children to follow in their hate that they call God's will.

This homophobia still exists today but Matthew Shepard's martyrdom still leads us to consider what a hate crime is, how to define it, and what to do about it. There was the Matthew Shepard Act in 2007 that expanded the 1969 US Federal hate-crime law to include crimes motivated by a victim's actual or perceived gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability. It is also something very big to think about in the upcoming election. Furthermore, Matthew will always be remembered in this month of LGBT history that he has found himself embedded in. His accepting behavior and his loving, positive outlook that he had during his life is surely seen within the LGBT community now.

Thank you, Matthew. You are a guardian angel for us now, and all the other victims and martyrs for continuing to be the inspiration you were during your lives and now, in your afterlives. Never will your deaths be in vain. You have touched us all.

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My conclusions:

• National Coming Out Day was yesterday. I hope many have recognized it.
• October is LGBT History Month. Also, Breast Cancer Month and Hispanic Pride Month. Celebrate accordingly.
• I didn't want to post any pictures of the Westboro Baptist Church or Matthew's killers, because I didn't want them to be seen next to Matthew.