Matthew Shepard

Iowa Student Denied Gay Scholarship Recognition At Catholic High School

AP | RYAN J. FOLEY | Posted 05.08.2012

Read More: Iowa, Gay Rights, College, LGBT Rights, Matthew Shepard, College Scholarship, Matthew Shepard Foundation, Keaton Fuller, Gay Youth, Gay Students, Video, Gay Voices News

IOWA CITY, Iowa — A gay student in Iowa says his Catholic high school is refusing to allow a foundation that promotes gay rights activism to pre...

Read Whole Story

U.S. Issues First Anti-Gay Hate Crime Indictment

Posted 04.12.2012

Read More: Anti-Gay Violence, Hate Crimes, Anthony Ray Jenkins, David Jason Jenkins, Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, Matthew Shepard, Anti-Gay Hate Crimes, Kevin Pennington, Video, Gay Voices News

A U.S. federal grand jury has issued the first-ever indictment to charge a violation of the sexual orientation section of the federal hate crimes law....

Read Whole Story

Redtwist Theatre's Must-see The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later Finds the Hope in the Horror

Robert Bullen | Posted 05.06.2012

Read More: Redtwist Theatre, The Laramie Project, Theater, Matthew Shepard, Chicago, Laramie, Chicago Around Town, Chicago News
Robert Bullen

See this production. It's why we go to the theatre, folks. It slaps us awake and forces us to examine how we can support change not only as individuals, but as a community.

Read Post

WATCH: Matthew Shepard's Father Speaks Out Against Controversial 'Don't Say Gay' Bill

Posted 03.27.2012

Read More: Judy Shepard, Lgbt Bullying, Matthew Shepard, Don't Say Gay Bill, Video, Gay Rights, Gay Suicides, Dennis Shepard, Gay Teen Suicide, LGBT Youth, LGBT Rights, Tennessee Don't Say Gay Bill, Anti-Gay Bullying, Gay Youth, Gay Voices News

The father of slain gay student Matthew Shepard has joined the chorus of dissenting voices urging Tennessee voters to resist proposed anti-LGBT legisl...

Read Whole Story

LGBT Leadership: Split Hairs and Burnt Bodies

Pete Subkoviak | Posted 01.16.2012

Read More: Transgender Day of Remembrance, Lgbt, Transgender Issues, Shelley Hilliard, Matthew Shepard, Hate Crimes, Transgender, Gay Voices News
Pete Subkoviak

There are many organizations that espouse to support the transgender community, but in light of Shelley Hilliard's charred torso, the actual amount of money and human resources that most LGBT organizations devote to transgender services is insulting.

Read Post

WATCH: Texas Assault Victim Speaks Out On Alleged Attack

Posted 01.03.2012

Read More: Texas, Gay Bullying, Video, Burke Burnett, Homophobia, Hate Crime, Burke Burnett Gay, Matthew Shepard, Gay Hate Crime, Burke Burnett Gay Assault, Texas Gay Assault, Gay Voices News

The heavily injured victim of an alleged anti-gay assault in Texas is speaking out for the first time. "I was hurt really badly emotionally and ph...

Read Whole Story

Remembering Matthew Shepard: 13 Years Later

Waymon Hudson | Posted 12.12.2011

Read More: LGBT Rights, Lgbt, Politics, Matthew Shepard, Hate Crimes, Gay Rights, Fred Phelps, Westboro Baptist Church, Gay Voices News
Waymon Hudson

As a young gay man, I looked at the pictures of Matthew Shepard's face and could see my own. His life and death inspired me, as I'm sure it did many others, to become involved in the fight against hate, bigotry and inequality.

Read Post

9 Worst Funeral Protests By Westboro Baptist Church.. And One Awesome Protest Against Them

Posted 12.12.2011

Read More: Steve Jobs, Video, Westboro Baptist Church Supreme Court Ruling, Holocaust, Matthew Snyder Westboro, Westboro Protests, Elizabeth Edwards, Westboro Baptist Church, Matthew Shepard, Westboro Baptist Church Michael Jackson, God Hates Fags, God Hates Fags Church, Religion News

The Westboro Baptist Church is a hateful group of people with signs and a lot of time on their hands who show up and protest.. anything. Westboro Bap...

Read Whole Story

We Are All Matthew Shepard

Mark Daniel Snyder | Posted 12.12.2011

Read More: Matthew Shepard, Lgbt, Gay Bullying, Homophobic Violence, Anti-Gay Violence, Anti-Gay Bullying, Gay Voices News
Mark Daniel Snyder

Thirteen years ago Matthew Shepard was clinging to life as a result of a brutal, anti-gay attack. It was only a few weeks prior to Matthew's attack that I was contemplating suicide, having endured years of anti-gay bullying and torment.

Read Post

Creating Matt's Legacy

Judy Shepard | Posted 12.12.2011

Read More: Matthew Shepard, Matt Shepard, Judy Shepard, Matthew Shepard Foundation, Gay Rights, LGBT Equality, Gay Voices News
Judy Shepard

October cannot go by anymore, and never will again, without us wondering what might have been if hatred of gay, and lesbian, and bisexual, and transgendered people, and all those whom others simply think might be, had been rooted out long ago.

Read Post

PHOTOS: Remembering Matthew Shepard, 1976-1998

Posted 12.11.2011

Read More: Matthew Shepard Act, Video, Hate Crimes, Gay Rights, Gay Bashing, Laramie-Wyoming, Homophobia, LGBT Rights, Laramie, Discrimination, Matthew Shepard, Wyoming, Matthew Shepard Foundation, Gay Voices News

In what has been described as a galvanizing moment for America's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community, 21-year-old college student ...

Read Whole Story

Andrea Stone

GetEQUAL Plans Protests As Most Gay Groups Celebrate DADT Repeal

HuffingtonPost.com | Andrea Stone | Posted 11.19.2011

Read More: Pentagon, Gays in the Military, Don't Ask Don't Tell, Repeal Dadt, Gay Rights, Doma, Dadt Repeal, Protests, Dadt, Matthew Shepard, Defense of Marriage Act, Politics News

WASHINGTON -- The military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy ends at midnight, and gay rights group GetEQUAL says it will sponsor protests in more than...

Read Whole Story

Racist Rhetoric Fuels Hate Crimes

Valerie Taliman | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Jesse Sanford, Cosme Ripol, William Hatch, Hate Crimes, Jr, Racist, Lou Dobbs, Racism, Native Americans, Matthew Shepard, Eric Morrow, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, James Byrd, Politics News
Valerie Taliman

Those well-paid political messengers of racist rhetoric would do well to take a lesson from Diné elders and realize that they are manifesting their destiny in the worst way.

Read Post

Freedom of Deplorable Speech

Tina Dupuy | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Dr. Laura Schlessinger, Fred Phelps, Free Speech, Westboro Baptist Church, Supreme Court, Matthew Shepard, Freedom of Religion, Poverty Rate, Politics News
Tina Dupuy

Popular speech doesn't need protection. Nor does popular religious belief. Seeing the Westboro Baptist Church protesting is (at the very, very least) a sign of our freedom.

Read Post

Lighting Up and Lifting Off The Ground: Conversations With Shawn Mullins and Chely Wright

Mike Ragogna | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Scrubs, Court Yard Hounds, Prince, Shawn Millins, Paul Simon, Matthew Shepard, Glsen, Star Search, John Prine, Matthew Sweet, John Hiatt, Josiah Leming, Conway Twitty, Glen Phillips, Til Tuesday, The Thorns, Marshall Altman, Steve Forbert, Party of Five, Daughtry, Aimee Mann, Dawson's Creek, Rascal Flatts, Vince Gill, Rodney Crowell, Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson, Faith in America, Shawn Colvin, Steve Buckingham, Stephen King, Chuck Cannon, Toad the Wet Sprocket, Bob Dylan, Chely Wright, Entertainment Weekly, Tom Petty, Tom Waits, Nanci Griffith, Who Killed the Electric Car?, Max Gomez, Emmylou Harris, Townes Van Zandt, Warren Beatty, Lyle Lovett, Russell Carter, Jakob Dylan, Patty Griffin, Joni Mitchell, Jeffrey Dahmer, Greg Latterman, Bill Hicks, American Idol, The Bluebloods, Jon Brion, James Taylor, Joe Don, Electric Cars, Entertainment News
Mike Ragogna

The Thorns absolutely has been my radar since it was first issued. Now, he's been the songwriter's songwriter for a long time: care to go into some of the Shawn Mullins story?

Read Post

It Will Get Better: Speaking out on Gay Suicides

Lisa Kaas Boyle | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: It Gets Better Project, Military, Gay Rights, Suicide, Matthew Shepard, Tim Gunn, Dave Holmes, Gay, Gay Marriage, Tyler Clementi, Gay Suicide, Entertainment News
Lisa Kaas Boyle

Cultures evolve slowly, and sometimes laws change suddenly, but not soon enough for those who have already died.

Read Post

The Laramie Project: When Art and Life Intersect

Alicia Anstead | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Homosexuality, Hate Crimes, Tectonic Theater Project, The Laramie Project, Boston, Matthew Shepard, Cutler-Majestic Theatre, Tyler Clementi, Charlie Howard, Greg Pierotti, Artsemerson, Boston-Theater, Arts News
Alicia Anstead

For The Laramie Project actor and writer, Greg Perotti, the news of Clementi's death added another pall over a show that, each night, retraces the journey of Matthew Shepard's death.

Read Post

Fred Phelps and a Tale of Two Matts

Scott Swenson | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Sean Summers, Matthew Shepard, Westboro Protests, Al Snyder, Jason Marsden, Fred Phelps, Matthew Snyder, Westboro Baptist Church, Politics News
Scott Swenson

In the 12 years between Matthew Shepard's funeral, and a Supreme Court case about Matthew Snyder's funeral, Americans' attitudes toward their gay neighbors have changed. It seems the Phelps family are the only ones who haven't.

Read Post

Montana Tea Party Members Resign In Protest After President's Firing

AP | MATT VOLZ | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Montana Tea Party, Big Sky Tea Party, Tim Ravndal, Tim Ravndal Montana Tea Party, Tim Ravndal Big Sky Tea Party, Gay Rights, Matthew Shepard, Tea Party Matthew Shepard, Montana Tea Party Matthew Shepard, Politics News

HELENA, Mont. — A Montana tea party association's board will reconsider kicking its president out of the group for an anti-gay exchange on Faceb...

Read Whole Story

Judge Walker's Prop 8 Verdict Moves America Closer to its Ideals

Judy Shepard | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: California Gay Marriage, Gay Rights, Proposition 8, Judy Shepard, Prop 8, Judge Vaughn Walker, Same Sex Marriage, Matthew Shepard, Gay Marriage, Same-Sex Marriage, Politics News
Judy Shepard

My son once asked me if I thought gay couples would ever be allowed to get married. I told him it would probably happen in his lifetime, but not in mine. It's so sad, and ironic, but warms my heart that his dream is still coming true.

Read Post

Matthew Shepard's Mother's Memoir Homophobic? 'The Meaning Of Matthew' Rejected From College Reading List

qnotes | Matt Comer | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Lgbt, Homophobia, Judy Shepard, Matthew Shepard Book, The Meaning of Matthew, Matthew Shepard, Books, Appalachian State, Hate Crimes, Books News

Kathy Staley, an archivist at App State's Belk Library, wrote on her Facebook Monday that the committee had not chosen Shepard's book, "The Meaning of...

Read Whole Story

Fred Phelps' "God Hates Fags" Message: Is it Free Speech?

John W. Whitehead | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: First Amendment, Fred Phelps, Free Speech, Westboro Baptist Church, Anti-Gay, Christianity, Matthew Shepard, Military-Funeral-Protests, God Hates Fags Church, Gay Marriage, Religion News
John W. Whitehead

In rejecting Christ's admonitions, Westboro has chosen instead to focus its efforts on spreading hate.

Read Post

Partners In Change: President Obama and Senator Michael Bennet

Nancy Cronk | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Supreme Court, Hate Crimes, Primary, Economy, Michael Bennet, Jobs, Barack Obama, Veterans, Colorado, Deficit, U.S. Senate, Change, Troops to Teachers, Senate Races, Climate Change, Sonia Sotomayor, Banks, Schip, DREAM Act, Matthew Shepard, Pay-as-You-Go, Lily Ledbettrer, Denver News
Nancy Cronk

The divisions are deep, the fear explosive, and real solutions hard to find. But still, in each community, in each school and in each workplace, a small voice here and there says, "Yes... we still can."

Read Post

ReThink Review: Outrage -- One Reason Why the Bird/Shepard Hate Crimes Act Took So Long

Jonathan Kim | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Hate Crimes, Homosexual, Rethink Reviews, Matthew Shepard, Gay, Charlie Crist, Jonathan Kim, Larry Craig, Barney Frank, Movie Reviews, Ken Mehlman, Louie Gohmert, Mike Huckabee, Michael Steele, Outrage, Homophobia, Documentary, James Byrd Jr., Glenn Beck, Kirby Dick, Entertainment News
Jonathan Kim

And the main reason is because hatred/fear of gays is running neck-and-neck with hatred/fear of government for the most defining, unifying characteristic of the "modern" republican party.

Read Post

Ending Hate Crime

Lee Fisher | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Matthew Shepard Act, Matthew Shepard, Hate Crimes, Lee Fisher, Hate Crimes Bill, Ohio, Politics News
Lee Fisher

I am heartened that Congress has finally passed a bill that would strengthen the ability of governments at all levels to investigate and prosecute hate crime.

Read Post