Dennis and Judy Shepard – 15 years later

By Benjamin Storrow

(Casper, WY) Dennis and Judy Shepard would rather be boring. They’d rather have not visited the White House, or Ford Theatre or crisscrossed Europe on a State Department-sponsored trip promoting tolerance and diversity. They’d rather you never heard of their son -- at least in the manner that you have -- or themselves been transformed into icons, spokespeople for a movement, feted by politicians and celebrities for their strength and perseverance.

The road to equality is a long one. Dennis and Judy Shepard are still fighting nearly 15 years after their son's death. Their son Matthew, a gay University of Wyoming student, was tied to a fence outside of Laramie, WY, beaten mercilessly with a pistol butt and killed.

“We’re still kind of supporting the career he wanted for himself,” Dennis said.

And what career was that, I asked.

“To make the world a better place,” Judy said.

“The Laramie Project,” was a play about Matthew’s life and murder, and will open at the Ford later this year. The theater was the site of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination and the play will be shown as part of the Lincoln Legacy Project, which seeks to foster greater dialogue on issues of equality.

The symbolism of “The Laramie Project’s” arrival at the Ford is not lost on the Shepards. In previous years, the Lincoln Legacy Project staged performances about anti-Semitism and racism.

“It gives a new level of credibility to the play that now in that its’ now recognized as a civil rights issue in a place as iconic as Ford Theatre,” she said. “It was a totally different world when the play was actually written and what happened to Matt.”

Dennis leaned forward in his chair. Gay rights and equal rights are the same thing, he said. The issue is that American citizens are being denied rights as basic as hospital visits, the chance to adopt or inherit their spouse’s assets.

“This is just another step up towards total equality in this country,” he said.

Read the full story in the July issue of The Gayly.

Copyright 2013 trib.com. From the Associated Press.
Benjamin Storrow is a feature writer for the Star-Tribune in Casper, WY.