When he was just 21, University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard was offered a ride home by two straight men. The violence that happened next shocked a nation into action. After being beaten, robbed, and tortured, he was left for dead in the wilderness where he lay tied to a fence for 18 hours before someone found him. He never regained consciousness. The media coverage of the attack and the trial—where the murderers tried explaining away their attack by saying Matthew tried to come on to them—awoke a nation to the reality of anti-LGBT hate crimes, and has since led to hate-crime legislation protecting queer Americans.
In the two decades since the gay college student's murder, his legacy lives on in the foundation started by Judy and Dennis Shepard. But there’s still much left to do.
