Matthew Shepard Died 13 Years Ago Today. Never Stop Fighting For Equality.
Editor’s note: The death of Matthew Shepard had a profound effect on America. Thirteen years later, so much more remains in our fight to reach full equality and to stem the hate that caused Matthew’s death. Well-known freelance writer Kevin A. Barry shares his story.
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I’ll never forget the day Matthew Shepard died. I was living in small town Pennsylvania and only out of the closet three days when it happened. In those three days, my girlfriend and I broke up, my best friend since second grade stopped talking with me and I cried myself to sleep every night thinking that God hated me. I was a devout Catholic who knew he was going to Hell. Not because of what Leviticus said but rather what Our Lady of Fatima said, “More souls go to Hell because of the sins of the flesh than for any other reason.” I was terrified.
When I saw the news that a boy close to my age was brutally attacked and left for dead like a scarecrow in Laramie, Wyoming, I was in a very dark place at one of the lowest points in my life. In the two weeks that followed, I told my parents that I was bisexual and slowly began to tell my friends the same. I was in denial about being gay. While most were supportive, I remember vividly that one of them slapped me in the face… hard. She explained that the slap wasn’t for lying to her or to myself but rather for thinking that she would treat me differently. She wondered how I could think so little of her. The next week, I went on to become Class President at my small Catholic college – a post I held all four years.
Matthew Shepard’s death hit home to me in a very intimate way because only four years prior, a 16 year-old with whom I shared many friends was beaten to death on the steps of a nearby church in Philadelphia. His name was Eddie Polec. While I didn’t know Polec, the whole neighborhood was impacted by the brutality of his death and although Polec was not gay, his death seemed just as brutal as Shepard’s. Given how many common friends I had with Polec, it really hit home when I heard about Shepard’s death. I remember thinking “that could have been me†and for the next three years of my collegiate life, every time I would pass the wooden fence on the road that led in/out of campus, I was reminded of how lucky I am that it wasn’t.
Shepard’s death not only helped me realize the need for equality but it also helped me realize that there is a big difference between equality and tolerance. In many ways, he was a martyr for my generation. His death ignited a fire in me that never went out. Because of him I had the courage to pledge sorority at my college when I found out that fraternities were banned from campus to make a point that men deserve equality too. I gave up my Catholic faith when I found out that the local seminary would not allow gay men to study there even if they were celibate. I also became heavily involved with the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) and worked with them for five years to help increase the level of student activism in the state of Pennsylvania.
I share this personal story with you because every year this anniversary reminds me of the importance of fighting for equal rights and asking our straight allies to do the same. There are more people out there who support us than we realize. Hudson Taylor, Lady Gaga, Ben Cohen, not to mention all those people in the “New Yorkers for Marriage Equality†and “It Gets Better†campaigns are all great examples of this. However, one straight ally that bears mention today is Judy Shepard.
Judy Shepard, Matthew’s mother, took her pain and used it to become a crusader for equality. Due to her courage and dedication to the cause, the 1969 federal hate-crime law was extended to include crimes motivated by a victim’s actual or perceived gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability. Through my involvement with HRC, I had the pleasure of meeting Judy Shepard at a training in Washington, D.C. Soft spoken and eloquent, she is the embodiment of what St. Francis de Sales meant when he said, “There is nothing so strong as gentleness and nothing so gentle as real strength.â€
Today is the 13th anniversary of Matthew Shepard’s death. I urge you to share your coming out stories with your friends and straight allies, teach them about the antiquated laws, bear witness on your Facebook and Twitter statuses, and above all hold faith in the fact that full equality will be realized someday. It won’t happen overnight but it will happen and when it does it will be due to the hard work of those, like Judy Shepard, who continue to fight. To her and all our straight allies in the fight for equality, I want to extend my sincerest gratitude and ask that you never give up and never stop fighting. I know I won’t.
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Kevin A. Barry is a freelance writer who has written for such publications as Out magazine and Philadelphia Gay News, among others. He currently sits on the board of directors for the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association. You can follow him on Twitter @kevinabarry.
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First Lady Melania Trump’s renovation of Jackie Kennedy’s iconic Rose Garden during Donald Trump’s first term drew widespread criticism. Now, President Trump is renovating that space once again—this time transforming it into a Mar-a-Lago-style patio—sparking a fresh wave of backlash from critics.
President Trump defended what Newsweek described as “bulldozing” part of the Rose Garden, saying the change was intended to make the space more accessible for women wearing high heels, according to The Daily Beast. The renovations also involve removing several trees, including a saucer magnolia reportedly planted to honor President John F. Kennedy.
“It’s supposed to have events,” Trump said of the Rose Garden. “Every event you have it’s soaking wet,” he complained.
“The women with the high heels, it’s just too much… the grass, it doesn’t work. We use it for press conferences. It doesn’t work.”
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The White House has done little to inform the American people about the construction, leaving critics to ask questions including who is paying for the construction, and is there a federal agency or commission that approves changes to the White House, given its centuries-long history.
“The White House is a national symbol and not the personal property of any president. Permanent changes should be reviewed by preservation experts and consider public sentiment, not be made unilaterally for vanity or political messaging,” wrote Molly Ploofkins, a social media user whose bio says she is a retired Army medic.
“We’ve got money to bulldoze the White House Rose Garden and turn it into a Mar-a-Lago-style patio, but we can’t pay for cancer research for kids or make sure veterans aren’t living off food stamps,” remarked Democratic strategist and former Harris senior advisor Mike Nellis.
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“I love how people keep pointing out that private donations paid for it—not the government. I don’t give a s—,” Nellis added later. “The issue is this administration’s priorities. Trump thinks it’s fine to bulldoze the Rose Garden to build a patio so he can relax outside, while doing nothing to improve your life. That’s the criticism. He’s enriching himself, screwing everyone else, and not lifting a goddamn finger to help you. That’s the problem.”
Journalist Jane Coaston remarked, “I am increasingly of the view that Trump wants to ‘be president’ so he can watch musicals and manage the rose garden and he just lets other people be co-president for periods of time so he has more time for musicals and rose garden management.”
“RIP to the White House Rose Garden,” observed former Obama White House photographer Pete Souza. “Today the Rose Garden is being ripped apart as construction begins to pave over the entire grass area. A sad, and unnecessary, day for what used to be the People’s House.”
“The White House rose garden was established in 1913,” noted WAMU’s Esther Ciammachilli, before lamenting, “Trump has just paved paradise and put up a parking lot. This is not his house. It belongs to the American people. He is just a tenant. Nothing is sacred anymore.”
Image via Reuters
After stalling on a decision in the escalating Middle East crisis and delaying action—some say potentially in defiance of federal law—on the congressionally mandated TikTok ban, President Donald Trump, facing sliding poll numbers, a widely criticized budget bill on the brink of collapse, a looming debt ceiling showdown, and apparent tensions with his Director of National Intelligence, is heading to his Bedminster golf resort for a MAGA dinner and an early weekend likely to include several rounds of golf.
The decision to leave the White House early on Friday comes after he left the G7 early this week, reportedly to make a decision on whether or how to help Israel attack Iran. His former chief strategist, Steve Bannon, jokingly said Trump exited the conference with top world leaders because he was “bored,” The Hill reported.
The President is slated to exit the White House at 2 PM Friday.
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“With the world on edge, the president’s early departure underscores a pattern critics say reflects misplaced priorities, favoring fundraising and familiar retreats over the day-to-day demands of governance,” MeidasTouch News reported.
The long weekend also comes just hours after President Trump denounced “too many days off” for federal and other workers, a remark he made on Juneteenth, a federal holiday signed into law by President Joe Biden in 2021. Trump had campaigned on passing the legislation to honor and celebrate the day that symbolizes the end of slavery, but made no mention of it this year.
“Too many non-working holidays in America,” Trump decried Thursday evening.
“I know this is a federal holiday.” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Thursday. “I want to thank all of you for showing up to work. We are certainly here. We’re working 24/7 right now.”
This week, in addition to meeting with his national security team, and an “awkward” meeting with players of the Juventus soccer team, Trump presided over the installation of two 88-foot flag poles and the raising of massive American flags at the White House.
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Trump’s long weekend also comes just one week after millions protested his policies across all 50 states and internationally on Saturday, while he attended a military parade celebrating his and the U.S. Army’s birthdays, and after a tragic political assassination of a Democratic lawmaker and her spouse.
It also comes one week after Trump appeared to make a major about-face, saying farm, hotel, and restaurant workers are valuable and extremely difficult to replace. He suggested that ICE would pause targeting those workers, only to turn around just days later to announce “the largest mass deportation program in history.” The pause on deportations was canceled, leading one notable political commentator and legal analyst, Joyce Vance, to wonder if Trump is actually in charge.
“Who’s running the show?” she asked, suggesting someone may have “countermanded” him on the deportations. “Who’s in charge? Trump or someone else?”
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Image via Reuters
President Donald Trump, who campaigned in 2020 on making Juneteenth a federal holiday, used the occasion this year to criticize the number of federal holidays—a comment many viewed as a direct slight against Juneteenth, which marks the symbolic end of slavery in the United States. He did not issue a presidential proclamation recognizing the holiday.
It was President Joe Biden who signed the legislation making Juneteenth a federal holiday in 2021. And while he is no longer in office, it was Biden—not Trump—who formally honored and celebrated Juneteenth.
On Thursday, President Biden “took part in the service at the Reedy Chapel AME Church,” in Galveston, “one of the locations where an order announcing the end of slavery in Texas was read on June 19, 1865, two years after President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation,” CBS News reported. Biden criticized “ongoing efforts to erase history” during the event, “and appeared to take a shot at his successor, President Trump.”
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President Biden said, “Still today, some say to me and you that this doesn’t deserve to be a federal holiday. They don’t want to remember…the moral stain of slavery.”
“Our federal holidays say … who we are as Americans,” Biden also said Thursday, as CNN reported. “What we celebrate says what we value.”
At least twice, Biden appeared to refer to Trump, although not by name.
“When speaking about attempts to erase history, he referenced ‘this guy’ before giving himself the sign of the cross — drawing laughter from the audience,” CBS noted. “At another point, Biden pointed to efforts during his administration to rename military bases named after Confederate military officers, a process mandated by Congress.”
Also on Juneteenth, President Donald Trump launched an angry missive at the number of federal holidays, although he did not mention Juneteenth specifically.
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“Too many non-working holidays in America,” Trump declared. “It is costing our Country $BILLIONS OF DOLLARS to keep all of these businesses closed. The workers don’t want it either! Soon we’ll end up having a holiday for every once working day of the year. It must change if we are going to, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
While shuttering the federal government while paying workers does cost money, Trump offered no evidence to support his claim that workers don’t want the day off.
Critics berated President Trump.
“Saying there are ‘too many non-working holidays’ on Juneteenth is so on brand for a man who is actively trying to erase Black history,” wrote U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX). “This from the same man who’s wasted over $26 million in taxpayer dollars and spent more than 30 days golfing since January 20, 2025? Please.”
“As Americans celebrate Juneteenth,” U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) wrote, “I want to say: Trump can try to erase whatever history he doesn’t like, and he can try to brand ‘diversity’ as something bad. But he won’t succeed. We’ll remember ALL of our history and affirm that diversity is our strength here in America.”
“Not only is he trying to make you work MORE but also he’s taking an apparent dig at Juneteenth. This is coming from the same guy who golfs every weekend. Pathetic,” declared political commentator Harry Sisson.
RELATED: Hegseth Sidelines Juneteenth and Its Military History
Image via Reuters
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