Who is matthew shepard

Then they left Shepard in the frigid darkness. The next day, a mountain biker found him, at first mistaking him for a scarecrow. Shepard died less than a week later, on Oct.

His parents, Dennis and Judy Shepard, declined to comment for this story. Police said the women helped dump bloody clothing and initially lied about their whereabouts. Price was sentenced to days, of which she served 60 days. He was HIV positive at the time of his death. Matthew was born into an affluent family and had attended state school in Casper, Wyoming. The year-old political science major at Laramie University stood only 5ft 2in, and his blond hair, braces and slight frame gave him an air of vulnerability and innocence.

In his junior year of high school, Matthew moved with his family to Saudi Arabia. There were no American high schools in Saudi at the time, so he was sent to the American School in Switzerland. By the time he enrolled at Laramie he spoke three languages and had aspirations to be a human-rights advocate. Somewhere along the line, however, Matthew fell from being a grade-A student to a drug-addicted prostitute who diced with danger.

He suffered periods of depression, possibly as a result of being gang raped a few years earlier while on holiday in Morocco. But this is not the Matthew Shepard who became a celebrated figure for the gay-rights movement in America. Laramie is considered the most liberal town in Wyoming. It sits in a flat, treeless sweep of high plains. With the ranching industry in decline, employment here is dominated by the University of Wyoming. It has a quaint western charm: tree-lined streets, beautiful parks, and a renovated historic downtown at the edge of the railway yard with small shops and restaurants.

It is surrounded by rolling prairie, ranches, the Snowy Mountain range and vast, wide-open spaces. But the town also has a number of mobile home parks at the edges, some more rundown than others. On the evening of 6 October , Matthew went to the Fireside bar, a local hangout that was purportedly gay-friendly.

It was karaoke night, and locals rubbed shoulders with workers calling in for a swift drink on their way home. They believe he would be uncomfortable with his consecration as some sort of "perfect icon".

Judy points out that her son was not found on the fence in a crucifixion pose, as was wrongly reported at the time. Wyoming - which has almost as many pronghorn antelope as people half a million or so residents - is a rural, conservative heartland. Shepard's murder stoked the perception of Cowboy Country and flyover states in general as a danger zone for gay people.

But at his office in the city of Cheyenne, McKinney trial lawyer Dion Custis maintains it was a robbery gone bad, even while he accepts sexual orientation was a factor.

However, McKinney's own gay-bashing rhetoric damns him in the eyes of many. During a police confession, he said he began to attack Shepard because the student had put his hand on his leg during the car ride.

McKinney said he replied: "Guess what? We're not gay, and we're going to jack you up. Yet in another statement to police, he said Shepard simply looked like he was about to grope McKinney. From the jailhouse after his arrest, McKinney reportedly wrote to another inmate's wife: "Being a verry [sic] drunk homofobick [sic] I flipped out and began to pistol whip the fag with my gun, ready at hand. At trial, McKinney's lawyers argued that Shepard had made their client fly into a rage by touching his leg.

But the judge dismissed this "gay panic" claim. Such a legal strategy - where criminal defendants in cases of violent assault argue they were provoked by an unwanted same-sex sexual advance - is still admissible in all but three US states, according to the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law.

Sheriff O'Malley rejects any attempt to downplay the anti-gay element in the murder. Both killers are serving two consecutive life terms for kidnapping and murder. Neither would agree to interview requests, said the Wyoming Department of Corrections. The court proceedings are also remembered for a counter-protest that is commemorated by a mural in Laramie, just a few blocks from where it unfolded.

When Westboro Baptist Church returned as Henderson pleaded guilty in April , Shepard's friends were not prepared to let them steal the limelight again. Wearing outfits made of white sheets, duct tape and PVC piping, they stood in front of Phelps and his congregants, turning the other cheek to their bigotry. Osborn recalls the minister and his flock saying: "You're a disgrace.

We can smell the whiff of brimstone about you. Another counter-protester, Nichol Bondurant, says she could literally feel Phelps' breath on the back of her neck. Dubbed the angel action, it was replicated two years ago in Orlando, Florida, when Westboro Baptist Church tried to disrupt the funerals of gay people killed in a mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub.

Shepard's death would go on to inspire plays, a musical and poetry. Elton John penned a song, American Triangle, comparing the slaying to a deer run down by two coyotes. The dead student's family set up the Matthew Shepard Foundation, which helped expand federal hate crime law to include offences motivated by sexual orientation, gender or disability.

James Byrd Jr, a black man, was murdered in Texas in June by three white supremacists who dragged him behind a pick-up truck. The cause has made a quantum leap in the last two decades in America. When their son died, same-sex marriage was banned in every US state. But activists say their battle for equality is not over. Wyoming is among five US states that have no criminal hate crime law. In another 15 states, hate crime laws do not expressly cover a victim's sexual orientation, according to the Human Rights Campaign.

Judy feels gay rights "took a U-turn" under the Trump administration. Wyoming is celebrated as the home of train robbers Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. With its air of Western romance and cult of the outlaw, it is a place where the line between hero and villain can blur. In both high schools, he was elected by his peers to be a peer counselor.

He was easy to talk to, made friends easily, and actively fought for the acceptance of all people. Matt had a great passion for equality. His experiences abroad fueled his love for travel and gave him the chance to make many new friends from around the world.

The horrific events that took place shortly after midnight on October 7, would become one of the most notorious anti-gay hate crimes in American history and spawned an activist movement that, more than a decade later, would result in passage of the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr.