Jason Collins to wear No. 98 with Nets as tribute to slain gay college student Matthew Shepard

NY Daily News ^ | 2/24/14 | Stefan Bondy

[kcvl]

Judy Shepard (née Peck; born 1952) is the mother of Matthew Shepard, and her husband, Dennis, are co-founders of the Matthew Shepard Foundation, and advocates for LGBT rights.

She is the founding president of the Foundation's Board of Directors, and served as the first executive director from 1999 to 2009. On March 20, 2007, the Matthew Shepard Act (H.R. 1592), a bill which would expand federal hate-crimes legislation to include sexual orientation, was introduced as federal bipartisan legislation in the U.S. Congress, sponsored by Democrat John Conyers with 171 co-sponsors. Judy and her husband Dennis were present at the introduction ceremony. That bill did not pass however, after then-President George W. Bush threatened to veto the bill if it passed.

In May 2009, Shepard met with President Barack Obama, where he promised her he would help pass the Matthew Shepard Act. There was a controversy when the act was being debated in the House of Representatives, and while Judy Shepard was in the audience, Representative Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., called the allegation that the murder of Matthew Shepard was because of his homosexuality a hoax a statement which she later apologized for.

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[kcvl]

In an exclusive statement to Queerty, Judy Shepard said:

One thing I often see in productions of The Laramie Project is that involvement in the play sparks in them an awareness of anti-gay hate that they often would not have noticed, especially when performed at colleges and universities. Seeing how the community of Laramie, Wyoming was affected by the murder of my son as told in the play, creates a space where a community can talk about hate.

I was disappointed to see that a number of Ole Miss football players and others in the audience decided to interrupt a performance of the play using anti-gay slurs. Using hate-filled words to interrupt a play about anti-gay hate is a sad irony that only reminds me of the work we at the Matthew Shepard Foundation and each of us as individuals must undertake to help stop hate.

http://www.queerty.com/judy-shepard-responds-to-college-football-players-heckling-actors-in-the-laramie-project-20131003/

[kcvl]

Matthew Shepard’s Mom Weeps Over Gay Marriage Ruling: ‘I Wish He’d Been Here To See It’

“There had been a [news] story about same-sex marriage and he was debating it with me,” Shepard told PEOPLE Wednesday after the historic Supreme Court ruling in favor of gay marriage. “He asked me if I thought gay couples would ever be allowed to get married and he wasn’t at all optimistic it would happen. He was in a mindset of, ‘People are never going to accept us or understand us.’ It was a much different world then. There was activism happening, yes. And we were moving on from the AIDS pandemic. But ignorance and the fear out there was its own pandemic. For Matthew, it was a very secret world still.”

http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20712490,00.html

Hey, “mom” what about his DRUG use?! You approve of that too?!

[kcvl]

NEW YORK — Judy Shepard doesn’t think Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., was sincere when she apologized for calling the 1998 murder of Shepard’s son, Matthew, “a hoax.”

“Attacks of lesser consequence have been said about Matt since the beginning... but I never expected it to be called ‘a hoax,’” said Shepard Thursday on “The Rachel Maddow Show.”

During a debate in the House of Representatives Wednesday, Foxx said that the death of Matthew Shepard shouldn’t be used to justify a hate crimes bill because it wasn’t a hate crime. Foxx said Shepard was killed during a robbery.

“Everyone knew Matthew’s murder was a hate crime, but it couldn’t be prosecuted as a hate crime. We couldn’t call it a hate crime. Getting this bill passed in the House brings gay rights up to the level of equality,” said Shepard.

The killing of the University of Wyoming student became a rallying point for the gay rights movement. Shepard was tied up, beaten and left for dead on a wooden fence. The two men who killed him are serving life sentences in prison. Prosecutors’ cases included evidence with elements of robbery, drugs and hate against gays, but the court only determined that the men were guilty of murder and not why they killed Shepard.

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/30505428/ns/msnbc-rachel_maddow_show/#.Uw1KaZK9KSM

[kcvl]

JUDY: I wrote a book, “The Meaning of Matthew.” It was to introduce our Matt to everyone who only knew him as “Matthew Shepard.” They could get to know Matt as a person: his dreams, his aspirations. It became disconcerting to us that some people were making Matt a saintly gay icon, and I wanted young people particularly to know he wasn’t a perfect icon. He was a college freshman. He drank too much, he smoked too much, he didn’t go to class enough. I wouldn’t want my life to be defined by when I was 21, as his forever will be. I wanted to make it clear that Matt had struggles with depression, loneliness, and breaks in confidence. It was critical to us that this truth was out there. I didn’t want young people to think he was an unattainable goal on how to be a human being.

http://act.mtv.com/posts/judy-shepard-carries-on-the-memory-of-her-son-matthew-interview/

[VeniVidiVici]

Aw, how cute!

[Arthur McGowan]

Just checked Wikipedia. In the article on Matthew Shepard, there is no mention of Jimenez’s book or any of the facts Jimenez has brought to light.

[Impala64ssa]

Or is he wearing no. 98 because 1998 was the year some bimbo named Monica almost brought down the Clinton presidency by going down in the Oval Office?