Matthew Shepard Gets a Small Remembrance

It’s sad, but Laramie, Wyoming is best known for one thing – the tragic death of Matthew Shepard.

It’s a well-known story in modern American history. In October, 1998, Shepard met two men in a bar, and got a ride from them. Soon after, Shepard was robbed, pistol whipped, tortured, tied to a fence in a remote, rural area, and left to die. Shepard was discovered eighteen hours later by a cyclist, who at first thought that Shepard was a scarecrow. He never recovered, and died a few days later.

It’s generally regarded as an anti-gay hate crime, and one that brought national attention to prejudice and violence in America.

In a way, it’s strange that all the University of Wyoming has to commemorate Shepard is a bench, unremarkable from any of the others. It’s been there for two years, but only on the 10th anniversary did Shepard’s family decide that the time was right for a dedication.

Only about 100 people showed up for the dedication, which was barely advertised. (The university only sent out an e-mail letting students know it was happening the day before, and that didn’t even include the time.)

It was a very quick, solemn affair. The president of the university, Tom Buchanan, highlighted programs enacted since Shepard’s death, such as an annual social justice symposium, a gay resource center, and a center for social justice to research and expose sources of inequity in society.

But Judy Shepard, Matthew’s mother, had a different message. Since his death, she has dedicated her life to touring the country talking about her son and heads the Matthew Shepard Foundation. She called out Wyoming, saying that it was falling behind other states in terms of liberty.

“I regret that we still have some negative legislation attempts and discussion and those kind of things. But I’m confident that as the Equality State we can move forward, set an example and really make a statement about what it means to be equal to everybody else.”

Here she is, with her husband, Dennis:

Dennis, who rarely speaks in public, was certainly the most moving part of the ceremony, speaking of his broken nose. He’s had his nose broken three times, the first when Matthew was very young. He said that when Matthew broke his nose the first time, he was so proud to be like his father. It was almost like a race, with Dennis breaking his nose again, and then Matthew.

When Matthew was in the hospital after his beating, his nose was broken again. “I joked with him, saying ‘You finally got ahead of me,’ “ Dennis said, choking up.

After the ceremony, people passed in front of the bench, but no one sat down:

I had lunch with my friend and Beth Loffreda, the only professor to teach queer studies at the university, and the author of “Losing Matt Shepard.” It was a coincidence, as she’s an adviser for my friend’s thesis on oil and energy, and that was mostly what they talked about.

But Loffreda expressed a unique frustration with the whole episode today, mainly the media. She called out an Associated Press reporter who kept referring to the murder as a “robbery gone wrong.”

“ ‘Gone wrong’ doesn’t explain anything,” she protested, saying that the reporter simply wanted to view it as a bad drug deal, and wasn’t actually listening to anything she said. She said that a lot of people in Laramie are adopting the view that it was just a drug deal, even though the theory has been pretty well disproved, just so they don’t have to deal with the reality of the situation.

And as she spoke of the inattentive journalist, she breathed deeply in frustration, pushing the air out with as much force as her tired body could handle.