Mother's justice
Judy Shepard fights on for her son, hate-crime victim Matthew Shepard, with a foundation and a new book
By Carl Kozlowski 05/26/2010
Few can imagine the trauma of finding one’s son brutally murdered, especially because of something as innate as their sexual orientation. But Judy Shepard was one such mother, cruelly thrown into the national spotlight a dozen years ago when her son Matthew, a 21-year-old college freshman in Wyoming, was murdered by two gay-bashing men in 1998.
Amazingly, Shepard not only dealt with her grief, but also turned it into a motivating drive to make things better for young gay people nationwide by starting the Matthew Shepard Foundation and using it to give speeches to high schools, colleges and corporations about the dangers of bullying and harassment and how to stop such destructive activities from occurring. And this Wednesday at Borders Books in Glendale she will be discussing and signing the paperback edition of a book about her journey, “The Meaning of Matthew: My Son’s Murder in Laramie, and a World Transformed.”
“The foundation itself is still concentrating on the issue of bullying in public schools and then expanding to the larger world,” Shepard says in a phone interview from her home in Wyoming. “We talk in schools, raising awareness. We’re not allowed to be too politically involved as a nonprofit, so we only deal with ‘don’t ask don’t tell’ if it’s part of a larger event, without being asked specifically for that. All the issues that are left in the civil rights for gay community, we’re still a part of.”
Shepard realized Matthew was gay when he was 8, saying, “I knew before he knew.” She recalls that he came out to her and her husband, Dennis, before he was killed, and that they were supportive of him all along. Yet, it was his death that drove her to action in the movement.
“We have one young man right now who goes to high schools and middle schools to talk about bullying,” says Shepard.
“Apparently, high schools think I’m dangerous and don’t invite me, but colleges and corporations do. For a high school, I approach it from a mom who lost her son to hate. High school kids are the ones experiencing bullying. Colleges and corporations need the prodding, and we’ve become a little apathetic about gay issues.”
Shepard also notes that the foundation follows the enforcement of the federal hate crime bill, ensuring that the public is educated about it and that it is enforced properly — an endeavor the foundation shares with the FBI. While she feels that gay issues are advancing further under the Obama administration than during the “eight lost years under Bush,” she still pointed out some surprising facts.
“We still have 30 states where you can be fired for being gay. There’s still the issue of a gay individual in the workplace having to hide who they are,” says Shepard. “We’re working to pass the Employment Nondiscrimination Act (ENDA) to stop this. We have an intractable Congress right now. I think we’ll have to have the federal government step in to change things, the way they did with interracial marriage.”
Ultimately, despite her activism, Shepard is a mother first and foremost, and that’s a message that’s at the very core of her book.
“The book itself starts with the phone call about Matt’s being found beaten, and ends with the conclusion of the second killer’s trial,” says Shepard. “It’s about Matt and us, and him in particular. There were some things in the press that were untrue, and he was beginning to take on an image of he can do no wrong, and that’s not fair to Matt. He was a 21-year-old college student and lived that life. We didn’t want people to think he was untouchable, unreachable or any different.”
Shepard will appear at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Borders Books, 100 S. Brand Blvd., Glendale. Call (818) 240-8099 or visit borders.com. For more information on the Matthew Shepard Foundation, visit matthewshepard.org or matthewsplace.com.
To read Dennis Shepard’s eloquent statement to the judge and jury at the sentencing hearing for Matthew’s killers, go to http://www.flameout.org/flameout/matthew/closingspeech.html.
DIGG | del.icio.us | REDDIT