25 Years After Matthew Shepard's Killing, Lesléa Newman Helps Us Make Sense of It

Like many queer people alive during the 1990s, the thought of Matthew Shepard still makes Lesléa Newman shudder. Shepard, a beautiful, adventurous Wyoming college student, became a symbol after his horrific murder in October 1998, waking up straight America to the scourge of anti-LGBTQ+ violence and the near-constant threat many of us live under. Newman — known by many for her revolutionary 1989 children's book about a queer family, Heather Has Too Mommies — has kept Matt close in the quarter-century since he died. In 2012, she penned a "masterful" collection of poems about Shepard, October Mourning: A Song for Matthew Shepard. Eleven years later, and 25 years after Matt's killing, Newman couldn't help but pay a visit to someone who now seems like an old friend.

Newman's new book, Always Matt: A Tribute to Matthew Shepard, celebrates Matt's almost 22 years on Earth through Newman's poetic words and Brian Britigan’s evocative drawings. The book, with a foreword by pioneering out athlete Jason Collins, also details the long legacy Shepard left behind, like the Matthew Shepard Foundation, the incredible charity run by his equally wonderful parents, and the first LGBTQ-specific law ever signed, 2009's The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act.

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In her long literary career, Newman has also written about another gay martyr, Harvey Milk. Through her books, Newman — and her readers — work to make sense of these staggering losses.

"I acutely felt the need to use my pen in 1998 when Matthew Shepard was murdered. His voice was silenced forever," Newman tells us. "I have the privilege of having a voice, and I feel it is my duty to use it to give voice to the voiceless. I wrote October Mourning: A Song for Matthew Shepard in order to explore the impact of the hate crime that claimed Matt’s life. A quarter of a century later, I wrote Always Matt: A Tribute to Matthew Shepard, to celebrate Matt’s life and legacy and amplify all the good work that has been done in his name."

Always Matt: A Tribute to Matthew Shepard is out now.

Lesléa Newman, photographed by Mary Vazquez