The murder of Matthew Shepard, an openly gay University of Wyoming student, in 1998 sparked a widespread national outrage. He was born in Casper, Wyoming on December 1, 1976 to Dennis and Judy Shepard; his brother Logan was four years younger than him; the two were close to each other growing up. Shepard was well-liked in school but sometimes made fun of for being small and physically puny. The family were Episcopalians and Matthew was once an altar boy. Dennis Shepard obtained a job with Saudi Aramco in summer 1994, just prior to Matthew's senior year of high school. The elder Shepards moved to Dharah, Saudi Arabia while Matthew went to Switzerland to complete school. He returned to the United States and attended college in North Carolina, Wyoming, and finally Denver, Colorado.Shepard had been interested in politics from an early age and took up polsci at the University of Wyoming in Laramie, and he was chosen as the student representative for the Wyoming Environmental Council. His life took a turn for the worse when he went on a high school field trip to Morocco his senior year where a street gang beat him and anally sodomized him; Matthew was traumatized by the attack and began using drugs to cope. He was repeatedly hospitalized for depression and suicidal thoughts.
On October 6, 1998, Shepard was at the Fireside Lounge in Laramie when two other young men named Aaron McKinney and Russ Henderson approached and offered to give him a ride home. Instead, the two drove to an isolated location where Shepard was robbed, pistol-whipped, and tortured. They tied him to a wooden fence and left him to die. Neither McKinney or Henderson had been drunk or on drugs when the assault took place. They found where Shepard lived and also planned to rob his home. Back in Laramie, McKinney and Henderson got into a fistfight with two Latinx youths named Emiliano Morales and Jeremy Herrara. Both were injured in the confrontation and the police officer who responded to reports of a fight breaking out arrested Henderson and found a blood-covered gun in McKinney's truck along with Shepard's shoes and credit card.Shepard meanwhile was still tied to the fence clinging to life when a bicyclist named Aaron Kreifels happened by. He at first thought it was a scarecrow but looked closer and realized it was human. Police were called and found Shepard covered in blood but still alive. He was hospitalized in the trauma care unit at Poudre Valley Hospital in Fort Collins, Colorado. Shepard had two skull fractures, one of which damaged his brain stem. He was beyond medical help and did not regain consciousness, succumbing to his injuries on October 12.
McKinney and Henderson were charged with attempted murder, kidnapping, and aggravated robbery; when Shepard died, the charges were upgraded to first degree murder and their girlfriends Kristen Price and Chasity Pasley charged with being accomplices to murder. McKinney had confessed to police that they planned to rob Shepard and posed as gay men to get him into their truck. Shepard attempted to initiate physical contact with McKinney and was attacked. Price told police that her boyfriend was strongly homophobic.Pasley pled guilty to being an accomplice to murder in December. Henderson pled guilty to murder and kidnapping in April 1999 and in exchange for no death penalty he would testify against McKinney in court. He received life in prison while his public defender denied that he'd attacked Shepard for his sexuality. McKinney went on trial in the fall of 1999; the prosecution argued that they'd deliberately pretended to be gay to lure Shepard into their truck. His public defender argued that the two men had become "terrified" by Shepard making sexual advances on them and lost their self-control; the judge dismissed that idea. The defense next argued that they were planning only to rob Shepard but not to kill him. Ultimately McKinney did not get the death penalty but instead life with no possibility of parole. Kristen Price pled guilty to misdemeanor obstruction of justice.Members of the Westboro Baptist Church, led by Fred Phelps, received national attention for picketing Shepard's funeral with signs bearing homophobic slogans, such as "Matt in Hell" and "God Hates Fags."
Church members also mounted anti-gay protests during the trials of Henderson and McKinney. In response, Romaine Patterson, one of Shepard's friends, organized a group that assembled in a circle around the Westboro Baptist Church protesters. The group wore white robes and gigantic wings (resembling angels) that blocked the protesters. Despite this, Shepard's parents were able to hear the protesters shouting anti-gay remarks and comments directed toward them. The police intervened and created a human barrier between the two groups. Angel Action was founded by Patterson in April 1999.In the years following her son's death, Judy Shepard has worked as an advocate for LGBT rights, particularly issues relating to gay youth. She was a main force behind the Matthew Shepard Foundation, which she and her husband, Dennis, founded in December 1998.Gay rights activist John Stoltenberg has said that to portray Shepard as a gay-bashing victim is to present an incomplete account of his victimization "Keeping Matthew as the poster boy of gay-hate crime and ignoring the full tragedy of his story has been the agenda of many gay-movement leaders. Ignoring the tragedies of Matthew's life prior to his murder will do nothing to help other young men in our community who are sold for sex, ravaged by drugs, and generally exploited."
In June 2019, Shepard was one of the inaugural 50 American "pioneers, trailblazers, and heroes" inducted on the National LGBTQ Wall of Honor within the Stonewall National Monument (SNM) in New York City's Stonewall Inn. The SNM is the first U.S. national monument dedicated to LGBTQ rights and history, and the wall's unveiling was timed to take place during the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots.On October 26, 2018, just over 20 years after his death, Shepard's ashes were interred at the crypt of Washington National Cathedral. The ceremony was presided over by the first openly gay Episcopal bishop Gene Robinson, and the Bishop of Washington the Right Reverend Marianne Edgar Budde. Music was performed by the Gay Men's Chorus of Washington D.C., GenOUT, and Conspirare, which performed Craig Hella Johnson's Considering Matthew Shepard. His was the first interment of the ashes of a national figure at the cathedral since Helen Keller's 50 years earlier.
Honestly, the Gen X Episcopalians existing are so insane to me. Just this massively influential group of people who decided to forsake any town that didn't go fully into the juice bar trend, and now I've never met them.
Good threads OP, thanks (assuming you made the TX shooting too?)
Dudes were low IQ violent meathead rednecks and he shouldn't have been killed like this, but at the same time he was not a national hero worth interring in the Washington National Cathedral. He was just a guy who was attending some college classes and had PTSD from being ass-raped by shitskin Moroccans. That was it.
>>16550847lol he was a methheadlike how harvey milk liked him some young chicken, now he has a warship named after him
>>16550822Lesson learned. Never ever visit Morocco or any Turd World country for that matter. Germany or Australia not good enough for you?
>>16550822>Shepard had been interested in politics from an early age and took up polsci at the University of Wyoming in Laramie, andHe would have gone on to work for the Democrat Party. Thank God we dodged a bullet here.
>>16550882It is so weird how you can see through the modern lies about sexuality with clarity, but cannot perceive the modern lies about warfare at all.
>>16550912wdym
didn't that shitbag Obama sign some virtue signaling Federal hate crime bill in his memory?
if you can prove in court that you got assaulted because they thought you were gay, then it becomes a terrorism charge instead of a regular assault or battery
bah. they didn't care that he was gay so much as the fact that his family were obviously rich people with a high social profile since they were sending him to school in Switzerland and he was studying polsci (Episcopalians are all rich elite WASP types). there have been various serial killers who targeted faggots but they were presumably poor nobodies so they didn't get hate crime legislations named after them and be interred in the National Cathedral.
>>16550853The only remaining Episcopalians are literally in it for social justice DEI/gayfaggotism reasons. Most of the priests don't believe in God or Christianity and it just serves as a social club for rich white faggots. All of the actual believers left a while ago for the ACNA, the ACC, or the REC.
>>16550957>Most of the priests don't believe in God or Christianity and it just serves as a social club for rich white faggotsIt always was even back in the 19th century. It's just nowadays being a rich white faggot means worshiping the gay/global warming cult.
>street gang beat him and anally sodomized him; Matthew was traumatized by the attack and began using drugs to cope. He was repeatedly hospitalized for depression and suicidal thoughts.translation: was traumatized by the attack and began to see the extent of his way of life and started using meth to jack off to the memory and try to integrate the entirety of it into his existing persona and then had psychosis and went to the psych ward, then he did it again and used opioids to come off it, then he realized you only need opioids since they remove the cravings and all sexuality at all and also all personhood and he had to get treatment to come off of them but life was still unbearable because of the new experiences of euphoria and then realized just alcohol would probably also do the trick and is basically more normal too but then alcohol just makes you get into things with people you shouldnt be talking to and thats how he met mckinney and henderson and probably did something to piss them off, probably something to do with being gay
>>16550969Morocco is a horrible shithole. Visiting there was mistake #1.
>>16550924I was talking to you in the A bombing thread. We argued over the bomings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. You demonstrated a deeply uncritical acceptance of the popular narratives and myths which serve the present interests of the US military.
>>16550940I think it's a hate crime, not terrorism
>>16550847>Marianne Edgar BuddeHey I saw her IRL. She visited the church I worked at once.
>>16550835that is some fucking trailer trash. would not fuck.
>>16550826>He at first thought it was a scarecrow but looked closer and realized it was humanWhat the fuck.
>>16551013sometimes a cigar is just a cigarsometimes the eastern man needs an excuse to save facesometimes firebombings kill more than atomic bombings
>>16551052Sometimes you need to look twice, especially if Uncle Sam is showing it to you.
>>16550957I mean the group before it broke up. For what it's worth I'd also love to pick the brains of those socially liberal evangelicals of the 90s like Tammy Faye. Crazy to think there was a time when the QAnon types turned out for Democrats every time.
>>16551063>For what it's worth I'd also love to pick the brains of those socially liberal evangelicals of the 90s like Tammy Faye.Easy. Jim Bakker was a rumored closet fag and not a top either.
>>16550926Obama is also a closet fag.
fucking poop does not make you a hero or an American patriot
>>16551058what if I have and that's still the most reasonable answer
>>16551123Then you are a dumbass, congrats.
>>16551126post up what you have to say in the abomb thread then unless I already replied to it
>>16550826>Back in Laramie, McKinney and Henderson got into a fistfight with two Latinx youths named Emiliano Morales and Jeremy Herrara. Both were injured in the confrontation and the police officer who responded to reports of a fight breaking out arrested Henderson and found a blood-covered gun in McKinney's truck along with Shepard's shoes and credit card.200IQ right winger 4d chess
>>16551126>Wahhhh boo hoo the US blew away some japs and became the most powerful nation on earth, and the single greatest combator of communism. This is such a travesty, wake up sheeple!1!!1!!1!Stop watching tucker and read a book.
>>16550826>McKinney and Henderson got into a fistfight with two LatinxYou're not using English right, so I stopped reading the rest. It is just so strange how sodomites somehow always end up in these situations, isn't it?
>>16550926No idea, I don't view his actions as legitimate in the first place.
>>16550826>>16550822Poor bastard.
>>16550882arent you a tranny
>>16550969This is not your blog.
>>16550822>gay meth dealer murdered by gay masons for muh poor heckin gays narrative>see also: stonewall and the mafia's gay child prostitution
>>16551110AHAHAHA LE EBIN GAY POOP SEX BUTT MEME POOP BUTT LE XDDD
>>16552013They had girlfriends so I'm pretty sure they were not gay.
>>16551298Idiot, I do not watch your bullshit internet media. I have been reading on this subject since 2014, probably 1500 pages. "The Decision to use the Atomic Bomb" is absolutely damning, go read it.
>>16551497>No idea, I don't view his actions as legitimate in the first place.Trump lost.
>>16551992I want to kill myself. but I think I am onto the real circumstances, or close to them. fuck around and find out
>>16550822>A street gang anally sodomized himWhy are francoists like this?
Most likely he got killed in a drug deal gone wrong; just like with George Floyd they had to invent a fake narrative for social justice purposes to make it look like Shepard was not at fault for what happened.
>>16551013Was that the thread where some imbecile thought that a single 15kt bomb can destroy an entire country?
>>16551723TransGODS are often remarkably objective even to the point of self destructiveness.
>>16551110Actually that's exactly what it means to be an american hero.
>>16550822How many times you think these guys have been ass raped in prison?
>>16552985Not many, if they're in protective custody
>Henderson believes that the United States should revamp its federal hate crime laws to protect everyone, even after the passage of the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, according to a 2018 Associated Press interview. >“I think about Matthew every single day of my life,” Henderson said, according to the Associated Press. “I think about him and every single one of those days that I’ve had that he hasn’t had, his family hasn’t had, his friends haven’t had. I’m so, so ashamed I was ever part of this.”
>>16552013>>16552424>https://famous-trials.com/mattshepard/2498-the-matthew-shepard-murder-mckinney-and-henderson-trials-1999 >Aaron McKinney, the young man who brutally beat Shepard with his .357 magnum revolver, was bisexual. He offered his sexual services to men through an escort service run out a legitimate business called “Doc’s Class Act Limousine Services,” based in Bosler, Wyoming. >“Doc’s” actual name was Thomas O’Connor. O’Connor was a former porn star and Hollywood hustler. In the summer prior to Shepard’s murder, McKinney and his wife, Kristen, and their infant child lived for a short time rent-free in a windowless apartment on O’Connor’s property.>According to both the former manager and bartender of a gay club in Denver, McKinney would sometimes travel down to the city to hustle guys for what the manager called “twenty dollar jobs.” (McKinney also received money for sex from at least a couple of men in Laramie.) McKinney shared a trailer with a convicted felon. In December 1997, at age 20, he participated in a burglary of a Laramie Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant, making off with $2500 and a few desserts. >He was convicted and awaiting sentencing at the time of Shepard’s murder.
>>16550822>a high school field trip to Morocco his senior year where a street gang beat him and anally sodomized himWhy are muslims like this?
>>16551298>Combator>Murica internet defense force can't even speak English properlyI see DEI has hit the cyber brigade too
>>16553018*defence
>>16552997>“Doc’s” actual name was Thomas O’Connor. O’Connor was a former porn star and Hollywood hustlerAlso his real name was probably really David Stein.
Remember when the Westboro Baptist Church's website had a timer counting how many days Matthew Shepard had spent in Hell?
>>16552995>taking anything women says seriouslyNo. The only thing Federal hate crimes legislation could or should be doing is to prevent state and local governments from practicing racial discrimination, which was the original stated point of the 14th Amendment. That is it. Not faggots, not any nasty thing private individuals may do to you. The Supreme Court made that clear back in 1883 in the Civil Rights Cases.
>>16552558It doesn't matter whether or not he lost, we still got rid of Roe v Wade forever, and God can/will give us someone better than Trump regardless. Soon abortionists will be viewed no differently than slave owners were. I can picture it.
>>16553564>The only thing Federal hate crimes legislation could or should be doing is to prevent state and local governments from practicing racial discriminationOnly if they actually admit that's what they're doing. None of that "disparate impact" shenanigans. That's a pure fallacy which can always be fabricated from some angle given the right lawyers. You could accuse an inanimate rock of being racist under disparate impact.
>>16550822amerimutts are champions of bullying but sadly my country is quickly getting worse than America thanks to mass muslim migration.i used to be a piece of shit as a kid but thankfully i didn't bully anyone to death.poor parents.
>>16551723what's your point>>16552433>us army gets an incredible amount of resistance while fighting in Okinawa>this is used as calculation in projections of the resistance in the Home Islands >atomic bomb is used against industrial centers Hiroshima and Nagasaki>meanwhile the Soviets take Manchuria, absolutely wreck the Imperial Army, the Emperor uses this as an excuse to command surrender to the Americansnot really that damning
>>16550822>>16550826>>16550835Reminder faggots are not human, they're demons in human skin. This was based and you're a Satanist if you think otherwise
>>16555353what religion are you?
>>16550822>Going to Morocco for any reasonHis own fault
