Key takeaways:
- President Joe Biden acknowledged the 25th anniversary of Matthew Shepard’s death and condemned the nation’s recent uptick in anti-LGBTQ threats and acts of violence.
- Shepard’s death has been memorialized as an egregious hate crime that helped fuel the LGBTQ+ rights movement over the ensuing years.
- The Shepard family and LGBTQ+ activists have worked tirelessly for the past 25 years to ensure that Matthew’s death was not in vain.
On Thursday, October 8th, President Joe Biden acknowledged the 25th anniversary of Matthew Shepard’s death and condemned the nation’s recent uptick in anti-LGBTQ threats and acts of violence. Shepard, a 21-year-old University of Wyoming student, died six days after he was savagely beaten by two young men and tied to a remote fence in Laramie, Wyoming on October 6th, 1998.
Shepard’s death has been memorialized as an egregious hate crime that helped fuel the LGBTQ+ rights movement over the ensuing years. From the perspective of the movement’s activists — some of them on the front lines since the 1960s — progress was often agonizingly slow, but it was steady.
In 2011, the military scrapped the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy that kept gay, lesbian and bisexual service members in the closet. A Texas law criminalizing consensual gay sex was struck down in 2003.
Shepard’s parents, Judy and Dennis Shepard, have turned their son’s memory into a movement, galvanizing millions of people to fight for LGBTQ+ rights. Biden said in a statement, “Matthew’s tragic and senseless murder shook the conscience of the American people.”
The Shepard family and LGBTQ+ activists have worked tirelessly for the past 25 years to ensure that Matthew’s death was not in vain. As the nation continues to grapple with the recent uptick in anti-LGBTQ threats and acts of violence, the Shepard family and activists remain committed to the fight for equality and justice.
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