Reflecting on Progress and Final Thoughts

This is exactly right Summmer is for adventures, road trips, and adding a whole lot of miles to your car. That's why it's worth stopping at Valvaline Instant Oil Change first. Their train techs help you get road trip ready with an oil change and an eighteen point maintenance check included with every oil change, checking your tire pressure, wipers, lights and more. Valvaline Instant Oil change checks complete over two hundred seventy hours of training, so your car' in capable hands. Best part, you can stay in your car and you're in and out in about fifteen minutes. Valine Instant Oil Change Change wisely. goodoodbye. Summer is all about saying yes, going out and bringing the mess home in your car. Sand, grass, and melting snacks will inevitably hit a ride. But with Weather Tech, you can live life to the fullest. WeatherTech floor liners, cargo liner, and seat protectors allow you to keep up with your summer adventures without the worry. WeatherTech is built for all of those summer things, allowing you the freedom to go all in. WeatherTech is an American made premium product built to last and easy to clean. If you're going all out this summer, you need WeatherTech. Visit weatherteech dot com today Good. While the world watches the stars at the FIFA World Cup, Hyundai has its eyes on the next generation of talent, the future soccer stars who are already turning heads at age fourteen, because NeX doesn't wait for an invitation, And Hyundai doesn't either. Hyundai has always moved the future within reach. Hyundai did it by making advanced safety standard on every vehicle, and by engineering EV's with ultra fast charging capability. And Hyundai continues doing it every day because the future isn't some far off concept It's already here. Next starts now. Hyundai, an official partner of FIFA. Goodebye there Hell and welcome. too my favorite murder. That'seoria H Heart Star. That's gettinging Kilgararea. This is podcasting. one hundred one. It is real basic. This is community college podcasting brought to you by the doners in the back of the room. That's right. We'll see at the smoking tree. We' like extra credit my f. We replacace the smoking tree. We were like, we'll take this class. We're gonna audit this class Sure, they might try to give us a grade. Right. I heard the teacher is like really chill.. Like the final is bowling. you go bowling. The final is you have to tell the same story twenty five times. For ten plus years. What a gift. going on Pick the wrong color foundation again. I're gonna wear it say shirt ' we' blab.ike that looks flack to Well's found. I bet I look kind of like a floating head over this table. You do look like a mine Yeah, there she goes. Don't make me put my piggy little hands up in the air. Folks, you can see those hands on Netflix Listeners Get up to date.. You can also watch us and be watchers. Put it on the background so Netflix thinks we're killing it. D't even have to look at us. That's right. Put it on the background, mute it. Mute it. For sure. You know what we should do it. Let's start pushing for the way I give cookie reggae Let's start having people put this on for their pets when they leave them alone at the house. That's right. Let's game the system. We fucking love animals so much. If you put this on, well, You're gone. It'll make your animals feel better. Its Good for your animals. It's good for numbers. Y children you want to leave your children at home? Yay We're very soothing. We only say the F word every once in a while. Basically babysitters. At least at the top of the show. What are you up to Nhing but when this comes out, I'll have watched and known what happed in the last episode of Euphoria. so I'm really jealous of my future.. because you're just hanging on by threatad. I just want to I just want to see what happens. I'm hooked. I think I stopped watching you for it and I'm sorry because you know, I love Martha Kelly the most. O course. I stopped watching after there was like some party that they all went to and things happened at it And then the Anxiety that I felt during that entire scene, I was just like, oh, I don't have to live through this anymore. You're not in high school anymore. No It's very stressful. It's very flawed and imperfect, but there's something about it that and I'm totally not there, like demographic as an old lady, But it's Zandaya, right? Yeah, so it's like She's just incredible. I mean, everyone, they're long incredible. Yeah. shhout out to Mararino, fucking M Ao. Oh, that's right.s like she's right up on that thing. I know. she's so good in it. Hi. Conggrratulations. You're doing great Iris, we love you too. Iris I love you. Hey, we met you once. That's so funny. I had actually a true crime update for you. Oh's okay. That's what this is. It is what we're supposed to be doing For for sure. But we were talking about murdoch murders and that update and basically saying to each other, We wish we knew what things meant. And what's exciting about that is because we have this podcast network We have podcasts on here with people who do know what things mean. Okay. Most recently, Brief Recess, hosted by Michael Foot and Melissa Malibranch, and they went over all of this on their show. Oh. So I was like, oh, I'll just go get the information from them Yeah and tell you. So the source of this is Michael Foot, Melissa Malibranch, and the Brief Recess podcast, which if you haven't listened to' so fucking good. Michael is currently An immigration attorney fighting for people being kidnapped by Iice in New York City. You can follow him on TikTok, He talks about all the different things he And he's delight through and like so entertaining. so lawyers. you're like, o, lawyers, whatever. but no, he's like He' a joyous. He's an amazing man. and then he also started explaining things about this case where when I heard him talk about it, it's that thing of like, oh, it's so much better When somebody who knows what they're talking about is breaking the news because they do things like you know, he immediately said, this does not mean that Alec Murdoch walks free. Okay. So what does it mean? So the South Carolina Supreme Court vacated his double murder conviction. He's currently serving a sentence of forty years in prison for embezzling money, many clouts of embezling money. But their appeals were made by Murdoch's lawyer and it found that a county clerk improperly influenced jurors. And so they basically said he didn't get a fair trial for those murders. Okay. The jury interference centered on comments that this county clerk made to the jurors telling them to watch Alec Murdoch's body language in court So kind of the clerk shouldn't be saying anything to the jurors, right? So. Okay. mean Clearly not if They do can vacate a guilty verdict That's insane. Of course, when they were discussing it, Michael and Melissa talked about how baffling that behavior was and that of course, now other legitimate convictions can be overturned because of it or because of a county clerk that's interfering. Right. So apparently there will be a retrial. The stakes will be higher, prosecution recommend the death penalty this time around. And Alec Murdoch is suing the county clerk in federal court for this influence. Personally suing her. Yeah. I wonder what is her story? Yeah. Is this an overactive true crime fan that's like, hey, this is what needs to be happening here? Or is it person that's just like Hey, I've watched this person in this courtroom My whole career. Here's the thing he does when he's lying. Or iss just a nosy neighbor who's like likes to chit chat. It kind of doesn't matter. Do doesnn't matter. but I'm curious now about. Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's like, how could you have risk something this important. I want to see Martha Kelly play her Like that's who I'm picturing a Martha Kelly character. That's so funny. All right, well should we get into it? The highlights? Yeah, we have a highlight. We don't have a highlight network. This isn't Highlights magazine. We have a podcast network called Exactly Rright Media. We should do a podcast about Highlights magazine though. It would be so cute. I could read that thing forever nineties magazines podcast Oh yeah, I think it started in the fifties or sixties, didn't it? Okay. Goofus and gallant is not a nineties creation There's no way. This is exactly right media. That's correct. We have podcasts on our network. Like like the one I was just talking about. Exactly. Here are some more highlights. Yeah. This week it's the three hundredth episode of I said No Gifts. Yes. On this episode, Brger does everything he can to avoid fighting with Ellie Kemper. You know her from Kimmy Schmidt, the office. She does arrive with the gift, so a battle ensues and then they talk about everything from suunburns to the latest on a Star's suspicious death. I missed her in the office. I was so bummed there that day, but we didn't cross paths. So Were you on the office in the office, our office. D did I tell you I missed her in hour. I get that didn't Yp, I hear what you're saying I was in our exactly right media offices, not on the TV show, the office. Oh my God. Over on Dear Movies I love you, Million, Casey kick off their month longong celebration of Vide Nasties, a famous collection of VHS tapes that were banned from the UK in the nineteen eighties. So cool. And they're calling it Jun nasty? Yeah As in June and Nasty. That's right. First up is the nineteen sixty three horror cllassic Blood feeast. You gotta love a band movie. Yes. It' so good. Millie is such a, what do you call it connoisseur? Yeah, but it's more than that. She's an archivist. She's an expert in movies. So she talks about it from every perspective, which is like the fan perspective, the production perspective, the time, the place, the history. It's so great.. Also this week over on Hollywoodand, Jake covers Lucille Ball's Redcare scandal from the news report that exposed her former ties to a communist partarty to the government surveillanceance that continued on her long after America had moved on from McCarthyism. I love when Desi said, the only thing we read about her is her hair and even that's fake. What a time, McCarthyism. O feels familiar. And lastly, a reminder from our merch department. Yes, that is in all caps. If you don't have anything nice to say, you can always wear it with our fuck politeness merch. That's right. Grab the fuck pololiteness script UnIX t shirt, cozy or whistle now at exactlywrightstore. comot A end. Yeah Summers for adventures, road trips and adding a whole lot of miles to your car. That's why it's worth stopping at Valvaline Instant Oil change first. If you need an oil change, make the smart stop at Valvaline Instant Oil change before you hit the highway. Their trained techs can help you get road trip ready with an oil change and an eighteen point maintenance check included with every oil change, checking your tire pressure, wipers, lights, and more. That means they're checking important things before you're halfway to your aunt's house with no cell service. And these aren't just any techs. Valvaline Instant oil change techs complete over two hundred seventy hours of training So your car's in capable hands. The best part, you can stay in your car and you're in and out in about fifteen minutes. So before your next long summer ride, pull into Valaline inststant oil change. Valvaline inststant oil change, change wisely. Ge. Summer is all about saying yes, going out and bringing the mess home in your car. Sand, grass, and melting snacks will inevitably hitch a ride. But with Weather teech, you can live life to the fullest WeatherTech floor liners, cargo liner, and seat protectors allow you to keep up with your summer adventures without the worry. Weather Tech is built for all of those summer things, allowing you the freedom to go all in. WeatherTech is an American made premium product built to last and easy to clean. If you're going all out this summer, you need WeatherTech. Visit WeatherTech dot com today. Goodbye While the world watches the stars at the FVver World Cup this summer, Hyundai has its eyes on the next generation of talent. The future soccer stars who are already turning heads at age fourteen, making plays that end up on everyone's feed, scoring from angles that don't make sense, rewriting record books that barely had time to gather dust. Because Next doesn't wait for an invitation, and Hyundai doesn't either. Hyundai has always moved the future within reach. Hyundai did it by making advanced safety standard on every vehicle. Hyundai did it by engineering EVs with ultra fast charging capability. And Hyundai continues doing it every day. From robotics that change how people live to young athletes changing the game The future isn't some far off concept, it's already here. Next starts now. Hyundae, an official partner of VIFA. Good Goodebye It's solo week And I'm going. You're gonna First and only. First and only and alone. Good luck. You leaving? Good luck players. Nbye. Y. And then I just put a weird balloon with my head on in here like with my face on it? So a black sweater. Okay. This one's heavy. So it's Pride Month Yes And today, I'm going to cover a story about a horrific hate crime. that would become one of the most notorious in American history And I do think it's surprising to some people that you and I have only discussed this in a minisode. It's only been told in a minisode. And I think part of the reason we haven't covered it is because despite it being a hugely important story is because you and I were of age and young women when it happened in the nineties, and it was so horrific. even more than twenty five years later. It almost feels too awful to talk about. and it's such a shameful part of our U. S. history that you and I just haven't been able to go there. There are definitely cases that we have talked about where the actual violence of the case is so extreme and just repetitive and whatever, that we're just like, we don't know how to handle this correctly. Right. And especially after years of like hearing back when we don't handle things correctly, I think more and more we got more and more careful with, and we couldn't not handle something correctly. Right And so I've been really nervous about doing this. Thank you to Ally Elkin, my researcher, because this also meant a lot to her as well. So I think we'll handle it. It's important to do it. It's important to talk about it. Right, so this story is tragic, but it's also an event that completely changed the conversation around gay people in America, particularly young gay people. It led to hate crime legislation being passed, and it led to communities around the country realizing they must become safe places for their LGBTQ young people to live their lives truthfully and without fear But even though it's been close to thirty years, this is still an issue, obviously, that LGBTQIA plus people face daily, so it's important for us to cover the story, I think And this is the story of Matthew Shepd. Yeah. The main sources for the story is a nineteen ninety nine article from Vanity Fair by Melanie Thurnstrom, as well as Matthewshepd dot org and a BBC article called Matthew Shepherd, The Murder That Changed America by Jude Sheerin. And the rest of the sources can be found in the show notes. So it's the evening of october seventh, nineteen ninety eight, and we are just outside of Laramie, Wyoming. We're just east of the city. Laramie is home to the University of Wyoming Like most college towns, it's considered to be pretty liberal for what is not a liberal state. A mountain biker and University of Washington, freshman named Aaron has just fallen off his bike, just riding on some paths when he notices Leaning up against a wooden fence, what he thinks at first is a scarecrow Aaron then realizes to his horror that he is looking at a person who has been beaten nearly to death He runs to a nearby residence to use the phone to call police. The victim is male, about five foot two and really slight. So at first, responding officers think that it's a young teenager He is unrecognizable and his face is covered in blood except for the places where the tears have made tracks down his face, which is just a heart wrenching detail. But he is alive The boys rushed to the nearest hospital where coincidentally, two other young men from town are being treated from injuries that they sustained in a street fight the night before And so police are aware of that. And these men had been driving a truck in which police had found blood, a gun and a wallet with an ID belonging to a twenty one year old named Matthew Shehepard. And so it doesn't take long for the police to realize that this is the identity of the young man who is now in the same hospital very tenuously holding on to life and that the boys who were taken in the night before are part of them Let me tell you a little bit about Matthew Shepherd. He's born on december first, nineteen seventy six to Judy and Dennis Shepard in Casper, Wyoming. He is a friendly child, though he is bullied by his peers sometimes for being small and relatively unaththletic. and also because as he gets older, he doesn't go to great lengths to hide the fact that he's gay. From an early age, he's fascinated by politics His mom's hairdresser recounts a story about Matthew when he's seven or eight years old, ahead of a local election saying, quote, He came into our shop and told us all how to vote and he knew. He knew the issues. We all thought he was going to grow up to be the president When Matthew is a teenager, his father who works for the oil industry, takes a job in Saudi Arabia. Matthew goes to the American school in Switzerland. In high school, he's elected by his peers to be a peer counselor and by all accounts he's easy to talk to and makes friends easily. When Matthew is a senior on a school trip in Morocco, he is violently sexually assaulted by a group of locals His mother, Judy, says that she felt that his trauma made him more prone to further trauma and people could sense his vulnerability After Matthew graduates high school, he officially comes out to his family who are supportive, especially his mother who he's very close to. When he's twenty one, he enrolls at the University of Wyoming in Laramy, majoring in political science with a minor in languages And it seems like he starts to thrive in the college setting. And he's actually chosen as the student representative for the Wyoming Environmental Council. And it's his dream to work as a diplomat for the Department of State And so let's look at a picture of him. I mean, you and I know it's so well, it's just seared into our memories, but here's a picture of him, his braces and just like such a sweet looking kid. So back to the night of october sixth, the night of the attack Matthew had gone to a meeting of the Cllege's LGBT Association, where he helps plan events for the upcoming gay awareness week which is set to begin the following Monday. And after the meeting, Matthew says he plans to go to a bar called the fiireide, but no one else seems up for it So he goes alone and arrives around ten PM, has a few drinks at the bar, and it seems like he's also hanging out with two regulars named Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson. Both are around Matthew's age, but they are not students at the university. They're actually locals known to be currently having issues with meth addiction and are possibly dealing meth, and they're known to frequently get in fights and get in trouble. so they're more local you know troublemakers. The detail that gets debated is whether or not Matthew had also been a user of meth or possibly involved in the meth trade and whether he knew Aaron and Russell prior to this evening. And it's this whole controversial conversation around it, but I don't think it's important to the story and also We don't need him to be a perfect victim or have this in any way means he deserved something like this to happen to him. So I don't even want to talk about the. Well also there I do think there is a and this you see it online all the time, but there's this kind of need that some people have to be like, I don't have to empathize tot this because and then they find there reason It's a very sad kind of human denial of like, I can't handle this or I can't. made to think more than one way about this topic. Right, right, one hundred percent. But the story that most people, including the police and Matthew's family believe is that Matthew did not have any significant prior interactions with Aaron and Russell and whether or not he had a drug problem, which is unclear, is pretty immaterial to the rest of the story.. So witnesses at the bar see the three men leave together around midnight and at one thirty in the morning, according to Aron's girlfriend Aaron returns home covered in blood, saying he has done something horrible that he may have killed someone Aaron says that he and Russell had made plans to pose as being gay so that they could rob Matthew. And that was the whole point. and they drove him to a remote area But even though Matthew gave them his wallet, which by the way, only had twenty dollars in it, it's just so fucking senseless tied him to the fence, beat him brutally and repeatedly with a handgun and took his shoes so he would not be able to walk and get help And so then Aron and Russell head towards Matthew's home with it seems like plans to rob it because they had Matthew's key and had taken it from him. But they get sidetracked in that street fight on the way. And Oh, the street fight was real. street fight' real. On the way, they get in a street fight. which seems like they were the I think it's probably pretty safe to say that Matthew Shepherard was not like friends or associates with these people. Exactly. You're right. It's just people wanting to not have to care as much about other people So Russell is caught and taken to the hospital. Earon escapes and runs off and goes home, tells his girlfriend what happened But then he goes to the hospital where the police catch up with him and they find that evidence in his truck So in his official confession to the police, Aaron says the motive was robbery and that they had tried to kill Matthew because they believed he could identify them But his girlfriend says that the fact that Matthew was gay was a key reason they wanted to hurt him. And this is like something that's just debated since then and to this day And he doesn't admit it on the official record at the time, but later in two thousand nine, Aaron tells a journalist, quote, The night I did it, I did have hatred for homosexuals. end quote. So it's from the actual perpetrator who says that. So what's the debate Sorry Are people saying the debate is it just was that they were trying to rob him and it was not associated with that Yeah But then they would' have justbbed him Right It's so frustrating when you hear all of that and you know where it's just like Sure, if you want to entertain every possibility in the world so that there is no actual accountability tootally, then you can introduce ideas like that all day long. Yeah You know your're If you're the one introducing these reasons why you shouldn't have to feel bad for someone who was murdered, then you need to look at your own. self It's like it's about you. It's fully about you. It' not Look, there's a thing called projection and you need to look it up at the library Summers for adventures, road trips and adding a whole lot of miles to your car. That's why it's worth stopping at Valvalinee Instant Oil change first. If you need an oil change, make the smart stop at Valvaline Instant oil change before you hit the highway. Their trained techs can help you get road trip ready with an oil change and an eighteen point maintenance check included with every oil change, checking your tire pressure, wipers, lights, and more. That means they're checking important things before you're halfway to your aunt's house with no cell service. And these aren't just any techs. Valvaline Instant oil change techs complete over two hundred seventy hours of training So your car's in capable hands. The best part, you can stay in your car and you're in and out in about fifteen minutes. So before your next long summer ride, pull into Valvaline inststant oil change. Valvalinee inststant oil change, change wisely. Gee. Summer is all about saying yes, going out and bringing the mess home in your car. Sand, grass, and melting snacks will inevitably hit a ride. But with weather teech, you can live life to the fullest WeatherTech floor liners, cargo liner, and seat protectors allow you to keep up with your summer adventures without the worry. WeatherTech is built for all of those summer things, allowing you the freedom to go all in. WeatherTech is an American made premium product built to last and easy to clean. If you're going all out this summer, you need WeatherTech. Visit we Weatherteech dot com today. Goodbye While the world watches the stars at the FVver World Cup this summer, Hyundai has its eyes on the next generation of talent. The future soccer stars who are already turning heads at age fourteen, making plays that end up on everyone's feed, scoring from angles that don't make sense, rewriting record books that barely had time to gather dust. Because Next doesn't wait for an invitation, and Hyundai doesn't either. Hyundai has always moved the future within reach. Hyundai did it by making advanced safety standard on every vehicle. Hyundai did it by engineering EVs with ultra fast charging capability. And Hyundai continues doing it every day. From robotics that change how people live to young athletes changing the game The future isn't some far off concept. it's already here. Next starts now. Hyundae, an official partner of VIFA. Good Goodebye So in the background of all of this, let's talk about this. There is already a lot of big conversations going on in the country about the visibility of gay people. I think at the nineties is kind of when it started to be accepted in mainstream culture a little bit more. There was like a tipping point when gay people and gay stories are being fully integrated into mainstream culture, And into the media, in nineteen ninety four, Wilson Cruz is the first openly gay actor playing an openly gay character in my so called life. So that's nineteen ninety four. Yeah. Of course, Ellen DeGeneres in nineteen ninety seven comes out both as her character on the huge sitcom, Ellen and in real life on the cover of Time magazine. So if you're not old enough to remember it, that's a good indication of what culture was like, It was such a big deal that someone was coming out both in their show and in person that it was on the cover of a magazine, front page news. Yeah. And there were plenty of people who were outraged and advertisers who pulled out from that episode of Ellen because it was Yeah so different now. I know. And it's beautiful how different it is now. But to think about that time is so bizarre. Whereas like when you started talking about like there was representation a little bit here and there, it's like Right, You get like one funny over the top guy who had to be mocked the whole time. L The representation was so skewed and weird and bigoted in a weird way Although Wilson Cruz really that was a watershed moment. Yeah. So I was a teenager at the time and like we used we called people gay as a insult. That was like, Oh yeah, I feel like people don't The F word was used all the time just casually and I'm from a really conservative town and the only like out gay people were like the Goths. So it was already them being like totally ostracized, was the only way could come out. So yeah, and I had some cousins and friends who were, but it was not mainstream at all. No. It was Everybody had to go find their niche to go be in and be out of the mainstream. R? Be you weren't to be a quarterback and you weren't going to be the head cheerleader. So go find the other people who are outcasts in the I'm talking about the theater department So slurs were regularly and casually used in society. and in the media, the AIDS crisis stigmatized gay people, as it was thought of as a g quote gay disease. The quote gay panic defense was a real fucking legal strategy that was frequently used and it would allow the perpetrators to claim temporary insanity or extreme fright upon discovering a person's sexual orientation, which often resulted in lenient sentences or acquittals for assaulting or murdering LGBTQIA plus individuals. So if you say, Yes I violently murdered someone because they put their hand on my leg and I realized they were gay and hitting on me and I went crazy. That was a legitimate defense that worked. Yeah. And now we know that actually that's just admission that you probably harbor a lot of feelings that you're conflicted and worried about. So that's actually what was going on there. I mean like progress culturally in terms of just people's understanding. But I think it's because more and more people have the ability, like there's so many more people that are able to have a voice these days and represent. Yeah Yeah. So obviously we're not saying everything is great right now and it doesn't need so much more work, but from where we're coming from in the nineties in this era, like it was just gusting. Also here our point because women are constantly explaining why, but we're not covering this and we're not We do mean this and it It's just like, you know what we mean. Yeah Well, not the people who don't want to, right, the people that we talk to to go to the library and look up those. Th people don't want to know. No, no. They're not here for this though. Those people are always, they're just online. This is a show. There's so many true crime shows. This is' yours. Go go G go find another one. Have you been in the comments recently? Is this what's happening? For me? No No. but it has stuck with me Yes. So that's what's going on in the background when the news of Matthew Shehepffd's horrific injuries comes out. Matthew was transferred to a more resourced hospital in Fort Collins, Colorado. His parents have to fly back from Saudi Arabia. I mean, imagine them on that flight home, how fucking terrified they were. The sheriff, O'Mey, he says that Matthew was Struck in the head and face between nineteen and twenty one times with the butt of a very large Smith and Wesson revolver. The only time I've ever seen those dramatic of injuries were in high speed traffic crashes, you know, where there was just extremely violent compression fractures to the skull. end quote And in fact, his parents only recognized him when they come into the hospital room at first because they saw his braces. Like he just was unrecognizable Ultimately, Matthew Shepppard had been tied to a split rail fence, beaten with the butt of a gun and left to die in the cold of the night until he was found almost eighteen hours later, and only because that kid fell off of his bike. While his parents are at Matthew's bedside, the story gets bigger and bigger. It's on the cover of time, President Bill Clinton calls them Elton John, Madonna, Barbara Streissand, they are all getting involved. and the hospital is so overwhelmed by calls to check on his condition that it begins posting updates on its nascent website in nineteen ninety eight wasasn't really a thing back then So the shepherds in the nation are devastated when Matthew succumbs to his injuries on october twelfth, nineteen ninety eight. And just everyone knows how hateful it all was. att his funeral service in the family's hometown of Casper, Wyoming a week later, it is picketed by anti gay preacher Reverend Fred Phelps of the Wesboro Baptist Church Along with his followers, including children, they held placards with homophobic slurs and shouted to the mourners that the dead student was burning in hell And in fact, this is so horrific. Dennis Shepppard, Matthew's father, was made to wear a bulletproof vest to his son's funeral. and the church had been checked by bomb sniffing dogs and there were SWT teams at the front and back of the building and police snipers on rooftops for the funeral of a victim of this horrible attack The story immediately sparks national outrage. Writer Andrew Sullivan says, quote, I think a lot of gay people, when they first heard of that horrifying event, felt sort of punched in the stomach. I mean, it kind of encapsulated all our fears of being victimized. So Erin and Russell are both charged with first degree murder, kidnapping and robbery, and their girlfriends are charged as accessories since both try to dispose of the clothes Russell had been wearing Russell pleads guilty, and Erin goes to trial and is found guilty and each are given two life sentences. And the story there is a lot bigger Deinitely think people should go look it up. So in the wake of Matthew's death, his parents formed the Matthew Shepherard Foundation which has online and offline resources for creating safe schools and communities They also lobby for years for federal hate crime legislation to be expanded to include crimes based on sexuality and gender identity. This is a long story and there's a documentary called The Matthew Shepherd Story and American Hate Crime. But essentially, the Matthew Shepd and James Byrd Junior Hate Crimes Prevention Act finally passes and is signed by President Barack Obama in October of twenty nine, eleven years after Matthew's death. And just to note, James Beer is a black man who was murdered by white supremacists In Texas in nineteen ninety eight. Yeah Matthew's parents hold ono his ashes for twenty years because they're so afraid that if they inter him in a public place, his grave will be vandalized. They don't want to see that happen, obviously. And then in twenty eighteen, the right Reverend Marianne Buddy invites the Shepherd family to inter Matthew in the National Cathedral So on october twenty sixth, twenty eighteen, Matthew is laid to rest in the National Cathedral's tomb alongside the likes of former presresident Woodrow Wilson and Helen Keller. Holy shit, ye. I didn't know that. And not even Harvey Milk you know, another prominent gay man who was murdered was buried there Well, that was so long before where itas like Talle Yeah, twenty eighteen it took to allow it During the ceremony, the Episcopal Church's first openly gay bishop, the right Reverend Jean Robinson, says, quote, Gently rest in this place. You are safe now, Matthew, welcome home. So a collection of personal effects were donated by his family in twenty eighteen for display at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History in the U. S. Capitol which I didn't know about his schoolwork, some of his theater scripts, and items from his everyday life as a reminder that he was a normal American boy were donated by his family as well as condolence cards and correspondence that the Shepherds received following his death She must be so powerful Judy Shepherd, his mother, who frequently speaks out against Trump administration policies that have rolled back or undermined the protection she's fought for in the wake of her son's death said about the Smithsonian donation quote, For twenty years, we have tried to share the meaning of our son's life, as well as his dreams for a kinder, more accepting and loving world. It is deeply comforting to know that Smithsonian will preserve his story and meaning for future generations. We cannot think of a better way to honor Matt's life and legacy It ends with this quote The life and death of Matthew Shepherard changed the way we talk about and deal with hate in America Since his death, Matt's legacy has challenged and inspired millions of individuals to erase hate in all its forms. Although Matt's life was short, his story continues to have great impact on young and old alike His legacy lives on in thousands of people who actively fight to replace hate with understanding, compassion, and acceptance