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Remembering Matthew Shepard: 18 Years Ago, Gay Man’s Horrific Murder Changed America Forever
1998 Wyoming Attack Remains A Vivid Symbol Of Anti-LGBT Violence
Eighteen years after the horrific murder of Matthew Shepard, we remember a gentle young man who became a vivid symbol of the hatred and violence visited upon LGBT people.
On the night of Oct. 6, 1998, Matthew Shepard was lured from a gay-friendly hangout in Laramie, Wyoming, by two young men, Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson, who pretended to be gay.
McKinney and Henderson drove Shepard to a remote area, beat him with the butt of a .357 magnum pistol, stole his wallet (including his credit card, which provided a first clue to the police) and his shoes (so that he could not walk back), and tied him to a fence.
About 18 hours later, a mountain biker found the brutalized young man. At first glance, he thought what he saw was a scarecrow. Shepard was only barely alive in the 30-degree weather. The only visible part of his bloody face were the tracks made by his tears.
He was rushed to a hospital in Fort Collins, Colorado, and put on full life support, but in the early hours of Oct. 12, without regaining consciousness, he expired, with his parents, who had been summoned from their home in Denver, by his side.
As Nikolai Endres observed: “The scarecrow image, a vivid reminder of homosexuals as outcasts, coupled with the Biblical symbol of a crucifixion, caused an outcry across the world. Shepard made the cover of Time magazine and the front page of the New York Times; thousands of candlelight vigils were held across the nation.”
The LGBT community grieved deeply, and our grief was exacerbated by the gloating of homophobes such as the Phelps clan of the Westboro Baptist Church, who picketed Shepard’s funeral with signs alleging “Got hates fags.”
In due course, Henderson and McKinney were convicted of Shepard’s murder. Henderson struck a plea bargain to avoid the death penalty. McKinney was convicted of felony murder after a trial. At the request of Dennis Shepard, he was spared the death penalty and, like Henderson, was sentenced to life in prison.
Matthew Shepard has become a fixture of popular culture, evoked by celebrities and performers in order to signal their position on hate crimes and gay bashings.
Inspired by Shepard’s death, Melissa Etheridge wrote “Scarecrow” on her album Breakdown and dedicated it to Shepard’s memory; Elton John presented a concert in Laramie and played “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me” especially for the slain young man; Peter, Paul, and Mary also performed in Wyoming at a concert in Shepard’s memory.
In 2000, Moisés Kaufman and the Tectonic Theater Project performed the play The Laramie Project in Laramie and then across the country; made into an HBO motion picture in 2002, it has since become a staple of university and community theater.
In 2002, NBC broadcast a made-for-television movie, The Matthew Shepard Story, starring Stockard Channing and Sam Waterston.
In 2008, members of the Tectonic Theater Project returned to Laramie to conduct follow-up interviews with residents featured in The Laramie Project. Those interviews were turned into a companion piece, entitled The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later, which debuted on Oct. 12, 2009.
Shepard also became a poster boy for hate crimes legislation. As a result, he was defamed by right-wing politicians and conservative religious figures. In the House of Representatives, the execrable North Carolina Republican Rep. Virginia Foxx, in a speech characterized by Keith Olbermann as “the most despicable thing said on the floor of the House in decades,” declared that Shepard was not killed because he was gay and that the story of his death is “really a hoax that continues to be used as an excuse for passing these [hate crime] bills.”
Despite the efforts to discredit Shepard, hate crimes legislation finally passed Congress and was signed into law by President Obama on Oct. 28, 2009, eight years after first being introduced. The bill is named the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, after Shepard and an African-American man whose racially motivated murder in 1998 also made national headlines.Â
The hate crimes bill was the first federal legislation that specifically recognized the civil rights of LGBT people. Fittingly, the parents of Matthew Shepard, Judy and Dennis Shepard, were present at the signing ceremony.
Upon the passage of the bill, Judy Shepard issued the following statement: “When Dennis and I started calling 10 years ago for federal action to prevent and properly prosecute hate crimes against gay, lesbian and transgendered Americans, we never imagined it would take this long. The legislation went through so many versions and so many votes that we had to constantly keep our hopes in check to keep from getting discouraged. … We are incredibly grateful to Congress and the president for taking this step forward on behalf of hate crime victims and their families, especially given the continuing attacks on people simply for living their lives openly and honestly.”
Central to the success of the legislation was indeed the unstinting efforts of Shepard’s parents and the Matthew Shepard Foundation, which they established in 1999 “to honor Matthew in a manner that was appropriate to his dreams, beliefs and aspirations.” The Foundation “seeks to ‘Replace Hate with Understanding, Compassion & Acceptance’ through its varied educational, outreach and advocacy programs and by continuing to tell Matthew’s story.'”
This video from the Matthew Shepard Foundation tells Matthew’s story:Â
In 2012, Lesléa Newman published October Mourning: A Song for Matthew Shepard. A slim but powerful volume of poems, “a historical novel in verse,” October Mourning explores with heartbreaking insight the meaning of a gentle young man’s unspeakable death at the hands of gaybashers.
In 2015, Michele Josue’s highly personal documentary, Matt Shepard Is a Friend of Mine, was issued to critical acclaim.
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Although President Donald Trump’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency is deporting people at a slower pace than President Joe Biden did last year, ICE, under the direction of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, is reportedly $1 billion over budget—even as Trump on Sunday issued a new order directing the agency to carry out “the largest Mass Deportation Program in History.”
Even before that order, Trump’s “immigration crackdown” has been “burning through cash so quickly that the agency charged with arresting, detaining and removing unauthorized immigrants could run out of money next month,” Axios reported on Monday. ICE “is already $1 billion over budget by one estimate, with more than three months left in the fiscal year.”
“Trump’s DHS is spending like drunken sailors,” U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) told the news outlet. “They are spending likely in the neighborhood of a billion dollars more at ICE than we authorized, and that’s patently illegal.”
READ MORE: ‘Coup’: What DHS Secretary’s ‘Liberate’ Comment Means, According to Experts
But one former federal budget official told Axios, “I have a feeling they’re going to grant themselves an exception apportionment, use the life and safety exception, and just keep burning money.”
Trump could make emergency declarations to get around the law, sources told Axios.
“You could imagine a new emergency declaration that pertains to interior enforcement that would trigger the same kind of emergency personnel mobilization statutes,” former Defense Department lawyer Chris Marisola told Axios.
“These statutory authorities authorizing the president to declare emergencies,” Marisola told Axios, unlock “a whole host of other authorities for these departments and agencies [that] are often written incredibly broadly and invest a lot of discretion in the president.”
Calling out what he claimed are “threats from Radical Democrat Politicians.” on Sunday night, President Trump declared that “ICE Officers are herewith ordered…to do all in their power to achieve the very important goal of delivering the single largest Mass Deportation Program in History.”
But the President also declared that program was to be conducted only in Democratic-led cities.
RELATED: ‘Gas on the Fire’: Trump Blasted for Targeting Blue Cities and ‘Radical’ Dem Politicians
“In order to achieve this, we must expand efforts to detain and deport Illegal Aliens in America’s largest Cities, such as Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York, where Millions upon Millions of Illegal Aliens reside,” Trump continued. “These, and other such Cities, are the core of the Democrat Power Center, where they use Illegal Aliens to expand their Voter Base, cheat in Elections, and grow the Welfare State, robbing good paying Jobs and Benefits from Hardworking American Citizens.”
The President went on to claim that “Radical Left Democrats are sick of mind, hate our Country, and actually want to destroy our Inner Cities — And they are doing a good job of it! There is something wrong with them. That is why they believe in Open Borders, Transgender for Everybody, and Men playing in Women’s Sports.”
Trump reiterated and expanded on his largely false claims on Monday, attacking “Democrat-run cities” and his predecessor, while speaking at the G7 in Canada.
Watch the video below or at this link.
Reporter: Why are you ordering ICE to target Democratic cities?
Trump: I don’t know what you’re saying… Yeah that’s the focus.
(This is what fascism looks like) pic.twitter.com/4ed1lR4y4e
— Ron Smith (@Ronxyz00) June 16, 2025
RELATED: In Reversal, Trump Uses Term Tied to Ethnic Cleansing Amid Renewed Mass Deportation Demand
Image via Reuters
President Donald Trump arrived in Alberta, Canada, just before midnight on Sunday, to attend the Group of 7 (G7) industrialized nations meeting. By Monday morning he was publicly denouncing the intergovernmental economic group’s decision (as the G8) in 2014 to oust Russia after President Vladimir Putin invaded and annexed Crimea.
“Russia was thrown out of G8 as punishment for annexing Crimea – the first step toward invading Ukraine in 2014,” wrote Fox News Chief National Security Correspondent Jennifer Griffin. “The annexation was deemed a violation of international law and the principles upon which the G8 (now G7) is founded. The move was a response to Russia’s aggressive actions and a show of unity by the other G7 nations.”
Standing next to Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, Trump declared on Monday, “The G7 used to be the G8. Barack Obama and a person named Trudeau didn’t want to have Russia in, and I would say that there was a mistake, because I think you wouldn’t have a war right now if you had Russia in, and you wouldn’t have a war right now if Trump were president four years ago.”
READ MORE: ‘Coup’: What DHS Secretary’s ‘Liberate’ Comment Means, According to Experts
Stephen Harper, not Justin Trudeau, was Prime Minister of Canada in 2014 when Russia was suspended from the group, because Putin started the war against Ukraine in 2014.
“But it didn’t work out that way,” Trump continued, “but it used to be the G8, and now it’s, I guess, what’s that, nine years ago? Eight years ago, it switched over. They threw Russia out, which I claimed was a very big mistake, even though I wasn’t in politics then.”
“I was very loud about it. It was a mistake in that you spend so much time talking about Russia, he’s no longer at the table. So it makes life, more complicated, but you wouldn’t have had to work. And other than that, I think we’re gonna accomplish a lot together.”
He continued to defend the Russian president, telling reporters, “Putin speaks to me, he doesn’t speak to anybody else. He doesn’t want to talk—because he was very insulted when he got thrown out of the G8. As I would be, as you would be, as anybody would be. He was very insulted.”
“And, I mean, he was thrown out by Trudeau,” Trump again wrongly insisted, “who convinced one or two people along with Obama, he was thrown out, and he’s not a happy person about it, I can tell you that. Basically he doesn’t even speak to the people that threw him out, and I agree with him.”
Trump also appeared to recite some of the talking points from his Sunday night screed, in which he vowed to attack “radical Democratic politicians” and use ICE to target undocumented immigrants in just blue cities, but Prime Minister Carney stepped in to stop him from continuing.
RELATED: ‘Gas on the Fire’: Trump Blasted for Targeting Blue Cities and ‘Radical’ Dem Politicians
Critics slammed the American President.
“Trump thinks if Russia wouldn’t have been thrown out of the G8 there wouldn’t be a war,” noted Olga Lautman, a Kremlin expert and Senior Fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA). “Russia was thrown out because they illegally invaded Ukraine in 2014.”
“What humiliation for the United States to have this kremlin owned puppet representing her on the world stage,” she noted.
The Daily Beast’s Julia Davis, a Russia expert, added, “Trump remains Russia’s biggest advocate, lobbying for its re-admission to G7 (G8).”
Former Tea Party Republican Congressman Joe Walsh, now a Democrat and political commentator, responded to the American president’s remarks, writing: “Trump works for Putin. He really does.”
Watch the video below or at this link.
Trump: “Putin speaks to me, he doesn’t speak to anybody else, because he was very insulted when he got thrown out of the G8. He was thrown out by Trudeau, who convinced one or two people, along with Obama … he doesn’t even speak to the people who threw him out. And I agree with… pic.twitter.com/7xboNrDO37
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 16, 2025
RELATED: In Reversal, Trump Uses Term Tied to Ethnic Cleansing Amid Renewed Mass Deportation Demand
Image via Reuters
Just one day after a widely criticized, multimillion-dollar military parade marking both the U.S. Army’s birthday and his own—and amid millions attending thousands of nationwide “No Kings” protests—President Donald Trump announced on Sunday night a new crackdown targeting undocumented immigrants exclusively in Democratic-led strongholds, declaring that blue cities “are the core of the Democrat Power Center.”
Some critics also note that the move comes after a suspect, reportedly a Trump supporter, allegedly assassinated a Democratic Minnesota lawmaker and her spouse and gravely shot and wounded another Democratic lawmaker and his spouse on the same day as the anti-Trump rallies in all 50 states.
In a 400-word Sunday night “order” on social media, President Trump claimed that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents (ICE) every day face “threats from Radical Democrat Politicians,” as he announced “the single largest Mass Deportation Program in History,” before baselessly claiming voter fraud.
READ MORE: ‘Coup’: What DHS Secretary’s ‘Liberate’ Comment Means, According to Experts
“Every day, the Brave Men and Women of ICE are subjected to violence, harassment, and even threats from Radical Democrat Politicians, but nothing will stop us from executing our mission, and fulfilling our Mandate to the American People. ICE Officers are herewith ordered, by notice of this TRUTH, to do all in their power to achieve the very important goal of delivering the single largest Mass Deportation Program in History,” the President wrote.
“In order to achieve this, we must expand efforts to detain and deport Illegal Aliens in America’s largest Cities, such as Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York, where Millions upon Millions of Illegal Aliens reside,” Trump continued. “These, and other such Cities, are the core of the Democrat Power Center, where they use Illegal Aliens to expand their Voter Base, cheat in Elections, and grow the Welfare State, robbing good paying Jobs and Benefits from Hardworking American Citizens. These Radical Left Democrats are sick of mind, hate our Country, and actually want to destroy our Inner Cities — And they are doing a good job of it! There is something wrong with them. That is why they believe in Open Borders, Transgender for Everybody, and Men playing in Women’s Sports.”
Critics blasted the President and issued warnings.
“This is illegal on so many levels,” charged John Jackson, a former trial lawyer. “He’s declaring war on specific areas based entirely on their voter registration, which is a form of speech and protected political choice. It’s ‘vote Republican or I will punish you.’ Incredible. Out in the open. Lawless.”
“2 implications of Trump specifically targeting immigrants in Democratic cities: He’s NOT going after immigrants in places where they are least welcome,” observed former Washington Post editor Robert McCartney. “He IS doing what’s most likely to provoke backlash. We conclude that his goal is not to ‘solve’ the problem but to stir chaos.”
“This is the politicization of law enforcement. It’s not about ‘immigration,’ it’s about demonizing cities, harming political enemies and winning elections,” declared The Atlantic’s Anne Applebaum. “Also, those are the cities that had the biggest No Kings protests.”
RELATED: In Reversal, Trump Uses Term Tied to Ethnic Cleansing Amid Renewed Mass Deportation Demand
Pointing to Trump’s full screed, political strategist Rachel Bitecofer noted, “Please go study how the Nazis talked about the Jews to whip the public up into accepting restricting them from society, deporting them, and ultimately murdering them. It will sound a lot like this.”
“Trump is going after Blue cities based on nothing more than the crazy, conspiratorial voices in his head,” wrote Melanie D’Arrigo, executive director of the Campaign for New York Health. “He’s already violating our 1st, 4th, 5th & 14th Amendments, and deploying the U.S. military against citizens in L.A. This is what authoritarianism looks like.”
“He’s openly admitting that he’s politicizing law enforcement,” observed Chuck Todd, the former NBC News Chief Political Analyst and “Meet the Press” moderator. “This will not help ICE’s image because he’s asking them to perform a political task. Throw in the decision to shield the red states from law enforcement and he’s clearly hoping to provoke an angry response. At a moment when we need a president to de-escalate, he does the opposite.”
“Trump’s ugly plan is clear: Incite violence in blue cities & blue states only, and then put the military on the streets in those blue cities & blue states only,” warned former Tea Party GOP Congressman Joe Walsh, now a Democrat and political commentator. “Everything he does is meant to divide us. He is the absolute worst of us.”
“This sort of dehumanizing language about political opponents is exactly what leads to the horrific shootings we saw yesterday, wrote MeidasTouch News. “Disgraceful and dangerous.”
“One of his crazed supporters just assassinated a Democrat and he continues to instigate division and hatred, noted Arizona Democratic state Senator Analise Ortiz. “We need an adult in the White House, not a dictator hell bent on escalating tensions and political violence.”
Progressive media outlet The Tennessee Holler wrote that “the president posting that Dems are ‘sick of mind’ and ‘hate our country’ immediately after 2 Dem lawmakers and their spouses were shot in their homes is the opposite of leadership. Gas on the fire.”
“A US president is supposed to be the president of all the people,” wrote retired Professor of Law Anne Arbor. “This man instead foments hatred of his own political party against his political opponents. This statement verges on a declaration of civil war against half the country.”
READ MORE: ‘You Don’t Care’: Gay Congressman Blasts Defense Secretary Over LGBTQ Troops
Image via Reuters
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‘Kremlin Owned Puppet’ Trump Jets Off to Canada to Defend Vladimir Putin at G7: Critics
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