Assignment 7 - Claire Thompson

On October 7^th, 1998, a 21-year-old student from the University of Wyoming named Matthew Sheppard was found after being savagely beaten by two other young men. He died from his injuries on October 12^th. It was revealed after the arrests of the attackers that the beating was motivated by the attackers’ homophobia—making it anti-LGBT hate crime. Except, at the time, there was no legislation that made violently homophobic attacks hate crimes. It wasn’t until 2009 that a law was passed—called the Matthew Sheppard Act—that made this kind of crime a hate crime. It was landmark legislation, finally recognizing the kind of violence and hatred that LGBT people face on the daily. It took almost a decade before Matthew Sheppard’s death was really called what it truly was. Not only the crime itself, but the kind of ideology behind it, is so horrific. And it wasn’t just those men who attacked Sheppard that harbored this kind of hatred, nor has that kind of thinking ended.

Homophobia still runs rampant in this country and around the globe. Just because gay marriage is legal in the US doesn’t mean that homophobia is over. We can only hope though that people like Matthew Sheppard’s murderers are now few and far between, but in truth, we know they aren’t. Matthew Sheppard was killed almost 20 years ago now, and a lot has improved from the LGBT community—it’s probably safer to be LGBT in America now than ever before. But there is still so much more that needs to be changed.