Headline Roundup • October 26th, 2023
Twenty-Five Years Since the Murder of Matthew Shepard
Summary from the AllSides News Team
Earlier this month marked the 25th anniversary of the murder of Matthew Shepard in what The Hill (Center bias) labeled “one of the most notorious anti-gay hate crimes in U.S. history.”
Biden’s Words: In a statement marking the 25th anniversary of Shepard’s murder, President Joe Biden said, “No American should face hate or violence for who they are or who they love.”
Turning Point: A writer in the Philadelphia Gay News (Lean Left bias) wrote that Shepard’s murder was a “turning point for the LGBTQ+ rights movement” that “energized the LGBTQ+ movement… This eventually led to the passage of the nation’s first federal legislation for hate crimes in 2009.” The writer states the play created about Shepard, “The Laramie Project,” “continues to be an invaluable tool in teaching communities, particularly young people, of the consequences of hatred and bigotry.”
“Hidden Truths”: A writer for Reason (Lean Right bias) cast doubt on the official story of Shepard’s murder, calling it “without a doubt, an act of hate and violence,” but not motivated by homophobia. Citing the 2013 book, “The Book of Matt: Hidden Truths About the Murder of Matthew Shepard,” the writer argued Shepard and one of his killers, Aaron McKinney, were “connected by the drug trade, with Shepard set to receive a $10,000 shipment of methamphetamine around the time he was killed.” The writer concludes, “Shepard's murder was evil. It was evil because murder is evil. Unfortunately, though, that's not always enough.”
Featured Coverage of this Story
Matthew Shepard Foundation
Earlier this month marked the 25th anniversary of the death of Matthew Shepard. On October 6, 1998, Shepard was beaten, tortured and left to die, bound to a fence in a remote Wyoming field, not far from the small town of Laramie. He was found and taken to a hospital where he died from his wounds six days later.
Suspects Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson were arrested shortly after. They were charged, tried and convicted of first-degree murder. Both received two consecutive life sentences.
The case received national attention. It...
The Hill/Camdyn Bruce
President Biden warned Thursday of increasing violence against the LGBTQ community in remarks commemorating the 25th anniversary of the killing of Matthew Shepard, a 21-year-old student at the University of Wyoming who was brutally attacked and later died of his injuries in one of the most notorious anti-gay hate crimes in U.S. history.
“Matthew’s tragic and senseless murder shook the conscience of the American people,” Biden said in a statement. “And his courageous parents, Judy and Dennis Shepard, turned Matthew’s memory into a movement, galvanizing millions of people to combat the...
Jed Conklin/ZUMAPRESS/Newscom
In the fall of 1998, a man named Matthew Shepard was savagely beaten, strung out on a fence like a scarecrow, and left to die as the Wyoming night temperatures plunged. Over the last two and a half decades, the killing has been called many things. But a BBC headline from 2018 perhaps captures best: It was "the murder that changed America."
A statement from President Joe Biden helps explain why. "Twenty-five years ago today, Matthew Shepard lost his life to a brutal act of hate and violence that shocked...
