Matthew Shepard Research Paper

How will people who are in the LGBTQ+ ever feel safe, when they keep being discriminated? Matthew Shepard was an early-twenties college man, who was sweet, kind, outgoing, and caring. But he was also gay. This affected the way people looked at Matthew. Some with disgust, and some with open heartedness. But for a Matthew Shepard, it was his final day, he was looked upon with disgust. This lead to his murder.The Matthew Shepard Act is an American Act of Congress, passed on October 22, 2009, and signed into law by President Barack Obama on October 28, 2009, as a rider to the National Defense Authorization Act for 2010. This was created as a driving force to stop Hate Crimes against the LGBT Community. The people in America were all over the place

The men responsible for his death were Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson. 11 years ago, Matthew Shepard was just in his early twenties in college, when two men tragically ended his life, simply because he was gay. Our so we thought. It was stated by a man that maybe, just maybe, without the added drug combination, this poor man would still be alive today. Jimenez from The Guardian that stated in his book The Book Of Matt that “I believe to this day that McKinney and Henderson were trying to find Matthew’s house so they could steal his drugs. It was fairly well known in the Laramie community that McKinney wouldn’t be one that was striking out of a sense of homophobia. Some of the officers I worked with had caught him in a sexual act with another man, so it didn’t fit – none of that made any sense.” Many people were upset about with the fact that his murder was not called a hate crime, but I believe that Aaron was on meth, and Henderson was just an accomplice who in fact, was there with McKinney, but did not lay a finger on Shepard, nor did he try to stop the crime that was being committed. Therefore, in my opinion and in Jimenez’ opinion, the information that was given us about it being a ¨Hate Crime¨

It made people of the homosexual community scared of being victimized. “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," said writer Andrew Sullivan, a prominent gay rights advocate. These people have every right to be scared, because the truth is that even though we put 2 allegedly biased people in jail there is still more people like them out there. Think of the way the people of the LGBTQ+ felt after hearing about this so called “Hate Crime.” They were furious. The killing was a scary time for friends and family. Knowing that someone they cared for was dead. It made many people who were not of the LGBTQ+ association angry. A Biography had stated that “Despite the anti-gay rhetoric spouted by McKinney and Henderson throughout the trials that ultimately led to their life sentences for Shepard’s murder, they were not charged with a hate crime. As a result, Shepard’s high-profile murder case sparked protests, vigils and calls for federal legislation to protect LGBT victims of