Pride Month is a time when members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer community come together, along with allies, to celebrate how far along society has come in accepting them and how far we still have to go before everyone is treated equally. Sadly, even in this day and age, homophobia is rife. This unfortunate case was a perfect example of why we still need Pride Month to raise awareness. As always, I will strive to be as respectful as possible in telling Matthew Shepard’s story.
Matthew Shepard was born on 1st December 1976, in Casper, Wyoming, United States, to parents Judy & Dennis Shepard. They were joined in 1981 by Logan, and Matthew became close to his younger brother. He was brought up Episcopalian (a Christian denomination), even serving as an altar boy and attended Crest Hill Elementary School, Dean Morgan Junior High School and Natrona County High School. He was a friendly child, with his father describing him as ‘an optimistic and accepting young man who had a special gift of relating to almost everyone. He was the type of person who was very approachable and always looked to new challenges.’ Despite his friendliness, he was bullied due to his slight build (he was only 5 foot 2” as an adult) and because he preferred politics to athletics (he dreamed of working as a diplomat for the Department of State). In 1994, Judy & Dennis moved to the Saudi Aramco Residential Camp in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. While they were here, Matthew attended an American school in Switzerland; he was a bright young man and studied German and Italian languages as well as participating in the theatre. After this school, he attended Catawba College in North Carolina, followed by Casper College in Wyoming, before becoming a first-year political science major with a language minor at the University of Wyoming in Laramie. Here, he was chosen as the student representative for the Wyoming Environmental Council.
In 1995 Matthew joined a high school trip to Mexico and, tragically, whilst on this trip, he was beaten and gang raped. This, understandably, left him suffering depression and panic attacks, even being hospitalised with suicidal ideation (a broad term to describe wishes and preoccupations with death and suicide). One of his friends believed this incident was the catalyst for Matthew’s drug abuse that followed him through college.
On the 6th October 1998, Matthew, who was openly gay (and with the support of his parents), met with friends to help organise the LGBT awareness week on campus. Matthew wanted a drink afterwards, but his friends didn’t, so he went alone to the Fireside Lounge in Laramie. Later that night, Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson offered him a lift home. Instead of taking Matthew home, McKinney and Henderson pulled out a gun when they were in the truck, beat Matthew and stole his money (there was just $20 in his wallet). They drove to a remote area, and Henderson tied Matthew to a fence with a clothesline. McKinney began to pistol whip him. Later, Sheriff Dave O’Malley described the brutality of the beating: ‘The only time I’ve ever seen those dramatic of injuries were in high-speed traffic crashes, you know, where there were just extremely violent compression fractures to the skull’. They left Matthew, tied up in freezing temperatures, to die.
Eighteen hours after the attack, cyclist Aaron Kreifels was cycling along and saw what he believed to be a scarecrow. Taking a closer look, he realised it was Matthew Shepard. Matthew was covered in blood, apart from where his tears had run down his face. Aaron rushed to ring the police, and Reggie Fluty was the first officer to arrive at the terrible scene. She said, ‘Matt was on his back with his arms behind him. His respirations were far and few between. And I thought he was way younger than what he was because his stature was so small’. Fluty recalled how she tried to comfort him, saying, ‘Baby boy, I’m here, kiddo, you’re going to be OK, hang in there, don’t give up, come on, you can do this’. Realising Matthew was still alive and, despite having no medical gloves, she used her hands to clear Matthew’s mouth of blood so he could breathe easier (the next day, they discovered Matthew was HIV positive, but after being tested, Officer Fluty was negative). Matthew was rushed to Ivinson Memorial Hospital in Laramie before moving to a specialist trauma ward at Poudre Valley Hospital in Fort Collins, Colorado. His parents were contacted and rushed to the hospital from Saudi Arabia. Judy said at first that they only recognised their son by his dental braces, describing the sight of him as ‘bandages and stitches all over his face and bandages around his head where the final blow had crushed his brain stem. His fingers and toes were curled in a comatose position already. Tubes everywhere, enabling his body to stay alive. One of his eyes was partially open, so you could see his blue eyes and the tubes in his mouth. You could see his braces, so of course, it’s Matt. His face was swollen, actually kind of unrecognisable till you got closer’.
Word got around about Matthew, and candlelit vigils were held for him. Even President Bill Clinton spoke publicly about the incident, describing the attackers as ‘full of hatred or full of fear or both’. Sadly, the injuries were too severe to operate, and he was placed on life support. Matthew never regained consciousness, and on 12th October 1998, at 12:53 a.m., he was pronounced dead. Matthew was just 21 years old.
Let’s go back to the night of the attack. After leaving Matthew for dead, McKinney and Henderson returned to the town. Whilst there, McKinney started a fight with Emiliano Morales (19 years old) and Jeremy Herrara (18 years old). Both McKinney and Morales suffered head wounds before Officer Flint Waters arrived. McKinney and Henderson were arrested, and McKinney’s truck was searched. Here, the police found a blood-smeared gun along with Matthew’s shoes and credit card (McKinney isn’t the sharpest tool in the box, is he?). Both McKinney and Henderson tried to persuade their girlfriends, Kristen Price and Chasity Pasley, to provide an alibi for them (which they both did and helped to dispose of evidence). McKinney and Henderson were charged with aggravated robbery, kidnapping and attempted murder. After Matthew’s premature death, this was changed to first-degree murder.
Sergeant Rob Debree interviewed McKinney on the 9th of October, a few days after the attack. McKinney told Sergeant Debree that he only attacked Matthew because he had placed his hand on his knee, although later, in another statement, he said he just looked like he was going to grope him. McKinney’s girlfriend, Price, told Detective Ben Fritzen that McKinney admitted to her that he was violent due to how he ‘[felt] about gays.’ Both girlfriends said neither of the attackers were drunk or on drugs at the time of the attack. It’s claimed that after his arrest, McKinney wrote to another inmate’s wife saying, ‘Being a verry [sic] drunk homofobik [sic] I flipped out and began to pistol whip the fag with my gun, ready at hand’.
On the 5th of April 1999, Henderson pleaded guilty to murder and kidnapping charges before the case got to trial. He agreed to testify against McKinney in exchange for immunity against the death penalty. District Judge Jeffrey A. Donnell agreed and sentenced him to 2 consecutive life terms. During sentencing, Henderson’s lawyer tried to argue that Matthew hadn’t been attacked because he was homosexual.
Later that year, McKinney’s trial took place during October and November. The prosecutor put forward that McKinney, along with Henderson, had pretended to be homosexual in front of Matthew to lure him to the truck and McKinney’s girlfriend, Price, testified that this was the truth. The lead investigator in the case, Albany County Sheriff Dave O’Malley, later said, ‘McKinney’s statement said he and Russell went into the bathroom at the Fireside bar, and they planned to act like they were gay to try to gain Matthew’s confidence. And so, the sexual orientation issue started at the beginning of that contact’. McKinney’s lawyer, Dion Custis, decided to put forward the ‘gay panic defence’. This ridiculous legal strategy claims that a person can become temporarily insane due to being on the receiving end of same-sex sexual advances. This can lead to violence and, in some cases, murder. Self-defence and diminished responsibility due to ‘gay panic’ are used as reasons for the resulting actions (or excuses for committing hate crimes). Luckily, the judge saw sense and rejected the gay panic defence. McKinney’s lawyer told the jury that his client had been driven by ‘greed and violence’ and not because of Matthew’s sexuality. Regardless of McKinney’s protests, the jury found him guilty of murder. He could have received the death penalty but didn’t because Matthew’s parents, Judy and Dennis, stepped in. They explained how Matthew was against the death penalty and how he wouldn’t want it, even in this case. McKinney, the piece of shit, stayed alive because of the man he killed. His girlfriend, Price, pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of misdemeanour interference with a police officer. Pasley pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the fact to first-degree murder. McKinney’s lawyer, Custis, still maintains it was a robbery gone wrong: ‘They [McKinney and Henderson] basically were just kind of two lost kids that were using meth daily, at least weekly for a long period of time’. People who use meth, chronic meth users, they lose the ability to rationalise, and [have] all kinds of problems mentally’. Urgh.
Now, I’m going to talk about the Westboro Baptist Church. I fucking hate the Westboro Baptist Church with a passion. They’re not affiliated with any Baptist church and are a hate group, nothing more. It’s a branch of protestant theology called Hyper-Calvinism. They hate Jews, Mormons, Catholics, soldiers, homosexuals – basically anyone who disagrees with their beliefs. If you want to know more about these creatures, Louis Theroux made an excellent documentary on them, The Most Hated Family in America. Led by Reverend Fred Phelps (who’s now dead. Good.), they had the audacity to turn up to Matthew’s funeral. They carried disgusting signs painted with slogans such as ‘God Hates Fags’ and ‘Matt in Hell’. Dennis Shepard recalled wearing a bulletproof vest to the service, and bomb detection dogs were sent into the church beforehand. These scumbags even turned up during the trials, conducting anti-gay protests. Matthew’s friend, Romaine Patterson, organised a group of people wearing white robes and giant wings (just like angels). You surrounded the area, blocking the hate group from sight. Sadly, Matthew’s parents could still hear their disgusting rants, and Phelps told the angels, ‘You’re a disgrace. We can smell the whiff of brimstone about you’. Romaine went on to create Angel Action. You can find out more about this here.
Matthew’s life was cut tragically short, but he does leave his legacy. His mother and father, Judy and Dennis, founded the Matthew Shepard Foundation in December 1998 and are advocates for the LGBTQ community (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender & queer). In June 2019, Matthew was one of 50 American ‘pioneers, trailblazers and heroes’ placed on the National LGBTQ Wall of Honour in the Stonewall National Monument, New York. On 20th March 2007, the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd JR Hate Crimes Prevention Act was introduced and was signed into law by President Barrack Obama in October 2009. James Byrd JR was a black man murdered in June 1998 by three white supremacists who dragged him behind a pickup truck. Matthew’s remains are now interred at Washington National Cathedral.
Judy said years later that as a child, Matthew would ask her, ‘Do you think I’ll be famous someday?’. She added, ‘I guess he got there’.
And that is the tragic story of Matthew Shepard. I felt deflated researching this case, but I’m glad I did; his story needs to be heard. As always, let me know what you think in the comments, thanks for reading and take care of yourselves.
If you are worried about being LGBTQ or have any issues or problems, please contact the LGBT Foundation for advice and support.
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