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Matthew Shepard was 21 years old in 1998
when he was brutally murdered.
The murderers' motivations only pointed to one thing:
the victim was gay.
THROUGH GAY EYES
Episode 84: Murdered for Being Gay
How did this *** happen, in 1998?
Matt was 21 and going to school at the University of Wyoming in Laramie, WY.
And two young men offered -- well, we think -- offered him a ride home.
They robbed him and beat him, tied him to a fence,
and used a pistol like a bat, swinging it by the barrel
striking him on the head 18 times,
crushed his brainstem, and he had stitches all over his face.
He was left tied to the fence for 18 hours
before someone found him, still alive,
and they took him to the Laramie Hospital.
Then they called us, saying that they had found him, they had managed to find identification.
And they sent him to Colorado, where they could handle his injuries better.
So they called us, and we got on a plane
from Saudi Arabia, where we were living at the time,
to go and be with Matt there.
Their prognosis was not good.
They did not feel Matt could survive with an injury that severe to his brainstem.
Did you know immediately that this was a hate crime
and they did this to Matthew because he was gay,
or did you only find out later?
It was not obvious to us that it was a hate crime.
We knew -- originally it was that Matt had severe head injuries.
We didn't know that he was beaten because he was gay, at the time.
It was only after we got to the hospital
and investigators from the police and sheriff's department
came to talk to us and explained what was going on.
From what I've heard, the incident was followed by a lot of media attention.
How did you and your family deal with that?
We largely ignored it.
We only wanted to be with Matt.
We wanted him to feel safe.
He wasn't awake, we knew he wouldn't wake up again,
but we felt like he was aware of our presence
and we didn't want him to feel our own anxiety
or any other emotion other than positive emotion.
So the media just wasn't part of what was happening to us.
Other than we had to be escorted in and out of the hospital
through a secret door so the media wouldn't see us.
He called me very early in the morning -- middle of the night, whatever it was --
and said, "Mom, there's something I need to share with you."
And I said, "Matt, what would that be?"
And he said, "I am gay."
There was also a certain pastor who preached against Matthew.
How did you respond to that?
We first saw this preacher and his family,
when they were protesting at our son's funeral.
We couldn't understand that.
We had two SWAT teams at different areas.
We had bomb-sniffing dogs in the church the night before his services and the morning of.
Just the idea that someone would do this when you're trying to say goodbye to your son
was confusing enough.
And then during the trials they were also protesting, against the gay community.
And we don't know why.
We can't understand what the difference is
between the straight community and the gay community.
They're all just human beings and citizens.
What exactly does your foundation do, and what are its goals?
The actual mission statement is to replace hate with compassion, understanding, and respect.
We try to work with educational programs, with schools, raise awareness.
We have two websites:
matthewshepard.org and matthewsplace.com
to try to get information to young people
who are in the gay and lesbian, bisexual, transgender community
as well as their friends.
We want to help them. And families.
We concentrate mostly on the youth
and changing policy in the U.S.,
so legally we can longer discriminate against the gay community.
Do you think the situation in the U.S. has improved for LGBTQ people?
The attitude towards the gay community in the United States has definitely improved.
When we first heard about Matt,
and what happened to him and his friends, what they were going through,
the discrimination, the hate crimes against the gay community
were pretty much ignored.
And now that has changed.
There's a database to record and investigate all hate crimes
because they have protection.
The population themselves now are in favor of gay marriage.
The culture -- the young people don't even know why there's a problem.
It's the older generation who are holding back
the proper acceptance of the gay community within the overall society,
and that needs to change and change quickly.
I've heard that you were involved in the introduction of a new law in the U.S.
Can you tell us a little more about this?
There's now federal hate-crime legislation
covering *** orientation, gender identity and expression.
Whereas before 2009, it only covered race, religion, national origin, and ethnicity.
And now it's expanded also the reach of the law.
It's named after Matthew and another gentleman,
named James Byrd Jr., an African-American murdered in a violent hate crime.
It now allows communities in the U.S. to prosecute hate crimes based on *** orientation,
whereas before they could do nothing.
If a state itself refused to prosecute, the federal government could do nothing to help, and now they can.
A Szimpozion production
Our partners:
DP: Takács Mária English translation and captions: Széll Melinda