Apparently, Matthew Shepard's brief life was not a bed of roses. His death was not the first time he had been assaulted. While a high school exchange student, he was beaten and raped in Morocco. He suffered flashbacks and depression for the rest of his life. The manner of his death (and the post-mortem abuse that he continues to suffer from the haters) becomes that much more cruel with this knowledge.
As you will hear, Judy Shepard is far from bitter or hateful; and if anyone is entitled to be, she should be, but she is not. She is a painfully shy woman thrust by events into a leadership role she never wanted. Listen to the interview on WNYC's Leonard Lopate Show here.
This makes me more sad...I´m so sorry that Matthew and others have faced such deadly abuse from thugs of all stripe...it´s a very nasty reality of how things ARE (and not how we keep wishing them to be).
ReplyDeleteOnward, blessings on the memory of those we have lost to bigotry, prejudice, fear and hate.