Free Republic

LOS ANGELES — Judy Shepard will be in Denver on Thursday night, about a two-hour drive from where her son, Matt, was brutally murdered in a gay hate crime 16 years ago. The Nets also will be in Denver on Thursday for their game against the Nuggets, and Judy says she has a warm welcome for Jason Collins if they cross paths. RELATED: HISTORY MADE AS COLLINS SIGNS WITH NETS, PLAYS IN GAME VS. LAKERS “I’m just happy for him. It’s wonderful that he’s playing again. I’d tell him thank you and give him a big hug. I have not...

Remember the terrible murder of Matthew Shepard in Laramie, Wyo. in 1998 -- tortured, beaten and left hanging on a fence to die -- because he was gay? The American people were led from the outset to believe that Shepard was the victim of a hate crime, murdered because he was gay. And that is how virtually every American still views the story. In the words of Congressman Sean Patrick Maloney (D-N.Y.), "Matthew Shepard is to gay rights what Emmett Till was to the civil rights movement." A play based on Shepard's killing, "The Laramie Project" became, according to the...

An estimated 20 players from the Ole Miss football team reportedly disrupted the university theater department's performance of "The Laramie Project." The play covers the aftermath of the 1998 murder of Matthew Shepard, an openly gay male student from Laramie County, Wyoming.

Within days of being brutally murdered in Wyoming in 1998, Matthew Shepard became for the Left a Christ figure, a sacrificial savior of the gay-rights cause. They even composed a passion play indicting a bigoted America in the hate crime, "The Laramie Project," that's been performed across the country, even in public schools. Ford's Theatre, the historic site of Abraham Lincoln's murder, has been selected as a natural Washington site for a restaging of this play, as well as a whole slate of panel discussions and other events on preventing hate, with The Washington Post signing as "Official Media Partner."...

Six years ago, on a cold October night on the outskirts of Laramie, Wyo., 21-year-old gay college student Matthew Shepard was brutally beaten, tied to a fence and left for dead. He was found 18 hours later and rushed to the hospital, where he lingered on the edge of death for nearly five days before succumbing to his injuries.The story garnered national attention when the attack was characterized as a hate crime. But Shepard's killers, in their first interview since their convictions, tell "20/20's" Elizabeth Vargas that money and drugs motivated their actions that night, not hatred of gays.While Shepard...

Breitbart is highlighting a book of an award-winning investigative journalist that turns the narrative surrounding the tragic death of a gay Wyoming man, whose murder gave the impetus for hate-crime legislation, on its head. The Book of Matt by Stephen Jimenez will be published this week and is already causing consternation among gay activists because it turns a homophobic hate crime into a spat between two meth-addled gay lovers. The story that we are most familiar with is that Shepard met a couple of men in a bar who offered him a ride home. They instead took him to a...

But what really happened to Matthew Shepard? He was beaten, tortured, and killed by one or both of the men now serving life sentences. But it turns out, according to Jiminez, that Shepard was a meth dealer himself and he was friends and sex partners with the man who led in his killing. Indeed, his killer may have killed him because Shepard allegedly came into possession of a large amount of methamphetamine and refused to give it up.

In what is being acknowledged even by liberal Catholics as a courageous move, Springfield, IL Bishop Thomas Paprocki debated dissident nun Sr. Jeannine Gramick on the topic of gay “marriage” before a decidedly gay-friendly crowd on Friday. In a shocking revelation in his opening remarks, the bishop told the crowd that his former secretary was brutally murdered by a gay activist simply for suggesting that he change his lifestyle. Heckling and insults from the crowd and were expected and received as the bishop lay out the argument in favor of traditional marriage, after which he concluded, “some of you may...

The metaphor "the War on Christmas" can be mocked -- as if Santa and his reindeer are dodging anti-aircraft fire. But many of our public schools have church-and-state sensitivity police with an alarming degree of Santaphobia. Anyone who's attended a school's "winter concert" in December with no traditional Christmas music -- not even "Frosty the Snowman" -- knows the drill. The vast Christian majority (that funds the public schools) is told that school is no place to celebrate one's religion, even in its most watered-down and secularized forms. There are real-life stories of Scrooge-like school administrators, like the one at...

Back in 2007, we assembled background info on the horrid propaganda play, “The Laramie Project.” Performed at high schools and colleges around the country, it uses raw emotion and lies to draw youth into the sexual-radical “rights” cause. The recruitment efforts never let up. So we’re not surprised to see “Laramie” being pushed again by Arts Emerson and the Boston Globe this week. They’re even exploiting the Governor’s daughter as a “panelist”. Emerson faculty are working with the sexual-radical groups GLAD, GLAAD, PFLAG, GLSEN, Matthew Shepard Foundation, Human Rights Campaign, and Boston’s “Theater Offensive” (“ambitious programming [on] the cutting edge...

It does not matter so much what God thinks of sodomy [I have it on good report, that He does not think well of it, despite that modern liberal churches and synagogues have all but sanctified it], but how can the American people accept this new found glory in all things homosexual? Will they allow the Safe School Czar Jennings and his cohorts [members of of GLISN and NAMBLA] to thrust their USDA Approved buggery on public school children? Now that the Jenning' FistGate has been outed, proving that the Gay Lobby has, indeed, very diabolical plans to ramrod (forgive...

'Hate' Crimes: The House has voted to make it a federal crime to assault people because of their sexual orientation. Aside from violating the Constitution's equal-protection clause, just what does this have to do with national defense? The House voted 281 to 146 Thursday to make it a crime to attack homosexuals and others. The measure was attached to a must-pass $680 billion defense bill. We think the amendment itself is a crime against common sense and the law. Saying "it's a very exciting day for us here in the Capitol," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi praised the passage of the...

I’ll grant supporters of hate crimes legislation one thing: they certainly understand the tactical advantage of being hateful when accusing others of hate. This weekend, after the Senate passed the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Bill, I posted several articles on Facebook and my blog questioning the claim that Matthew Shepard was murdered solely because he was gay. Although the media and gay rights activists treat it as conventional wisdom, this claim has always been in dispute. Shepard’s murderers, Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson, admitted from the start that they were on a drug binge at the time of the...

The United States Senate approved an amendment yesterday adding "hate crimes" legislation to the annual Defense Authorization bill, which would add "sexual orientation" and "gender identity" to the list of federally-protected classes. The Senate voted 63 - 28 to attach S.909, the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act (MSHCPA), to the $680 billion defense bill meant to support US troops fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Senate Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada favored attaching the hotly-debated bill as an amendment, instead of putting it forward as a stand-alone bill, in hopes of easing its passage, but his tactic...

Senate passage of hate-crimes bill wins plaudits By Eric Fingerhut · July 17, 2009 Jewish groups are hailing the Senate's passage of legislation expanding federal involvement in hate crimes. The Jewish Council for Public Affairs, Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism and B'nai B'rith International have all released statements today praising the vote attaching the hate-crimes bill to the defense authorization bill. "Bias-motivated crimes have terrorized families and communities for far too long," said RAC director Rabbi David Saperstein. "The Senate’s vote for the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act is a celebration of tolerance and respect and will give...

WASHINGTON -- A day after Arizona Sen. John McCain forged an unusual bipartisan alliance with the White House on cutting $1.75 billion in increased spending for the F-22 jet fighter, congressional Democratic leaders pressured lawmakers to drop the matter to clear the way for a hate crimes provision in the defense spending measure. The move, backed by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., sparked heated debate on the Senate floor as McCain unsuccessfully sought to remove the hate crimes amendment, known as the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act, from the broader defense spending measure on the grounds that the...

Innocent-seeming questionnaires, tests, and surveys are increasingly being disseminated by government officials so that they have complete histories on every citizen. At this writing, Republican Congresswoman Virginia Foxx of North Carolina is busy apologizing for her politically incorrect gaffe in arguing against legislation that would expand federal hate-crime laws to include sexual orientation. She pointed to the infamous Matthew Shepard case as a “hoax” inasmuch as Shepard’s killers appeared to have been interested in drugs, not sexual-identity issues. Were Foxx a teenager today, she would be spared the necessity of balancing her conservative views on sexuality against the left’s Orwellian...

A Republican lawmaker has enraged supporters of "hate crimes" legislation for suggesting that the horrible murder of Matthew Shepard was not motivated by anti-homosexual bigotry. Congresswoman Virginia Foxx (R-North Carolina) drew the ire of homosexual activists and other supporters of hate crimes legislation last week when she suggested that the tragic 1998 murder of college student Matthew Shepard was not a hate crime. "We know that young man was killed in the commitment of a robbery. It wasn't because he was gay," Foxx said on the House floor. "The bill was named for him -- the hate crimes bill was...

Democrats are making it illegal to think certain things. The House of Representatives passed legislation yesterday that extends federal so-called hate-crimes laws to include sexual orientation. This is a move to provide special status for specific groups. It is also unnecessary. If a miscreant kills or rapes somebody, he should be prosecuted for murder or rape. What he might have been thinking is beside the point. Hate-crimes legislation obscures the fact that the underlying crime is already prosecutable under existing laws. The bill is named after Matthew Shepard, a homosexual who was beaten to death near Laramie, Wyo., in 1998....

For once, I actually agree with Olbermann. Rep. Foxx should indeed apologize. Matthew Shepard was brutally beaten, tortured and murdered in Wyoming. His story is portrayed in the play and film "The Laramie Project". Personally, I disagree with "hate crime" legislation because all crime can be considered "hateful". Does it really matter why someone is murdered? Murder is by definition a "hate crime". Is there really any need to complicate the laws? That said, Rep. Foxx's comments are truly "despicable", insensitive and shameful.

Let me preface this by admitting I may be somewhat old fashioned here, but I don't believe sexuality should be taught in schools, especially when injected with the liberal interpretation of "tolerance". Be it hetero, homo, bi, or trans, aren't there more pressing scholastic topics that should be covered more in depth, like mathematics, English, and science? Apparently not. "'The Laramie Project' is being performed this weekend at Acton-Boxborough High School. It presents a message to its audience that Christians with traditional moral values toward homosexuality are hateful, bigoted, and likely murderers. It's pretty chilling stuff if you're a Christian...

Gay-rights activists are planning to protest the school district's decision to cancel a play. "The Laramie Project" is the true story about the murder of Matthew Shepard. The homosexual University of Wyoming student was beaten to death in 1998. Drama coach Bob Angelini told The Asbury Park Press homophobia and fear led Principal Julia Davidow  to reject the play. It was set to be performed in the high school in November. School Superintendent Thomas M. Pagano told the newspaper he stands by the principal. However, the superintendent conceded he may be wrong and the board has the authority to override the...

Some say it's a shame that Southridge won't perform the work about a gay man BEAVERTON -- Southridge High School's principal has stopped production of a controversial play due to profanities and sexual content. But members of the theater community say "The Laramie Project" is under attack because it features a character who is gay. "Southridge has prided itself on being diverse," said Jason Kniss, a 2005 Southridge graduate. "And if the school district and principal were to take this out, it would conflict with the founding principles there." The play chronicles the true story of 21-year-old gay college student...

Alliances of gay and straight battle bigotry in high schools Sunday, April 10, 2005 BY CATHERINE JUN Star-Ledger Staff [Westfield, NJ] -- Gay jokes by his high school classmates always troubled Rob Santucci. But when another student said "all gays should be put on a raft and exiled," he decided to take action. Santucci, a senior at Voorhees Regional High School in Hunterdon County, founded a gay-straight alliance group at his school in September called Students Making Advancements for Respect and Tolerance, or SMART. ...While common on college campuses, gay-straight alliances at high schools are growing in number, according Joshua...

Students perform play based on hate crime By NAOMI L. JENKINS Bucks County Courier Times Middletown - Matthew Shepard, 21, had been a University of Wyoming student for only a few months when he was the victim of a hate crime in 1998. Few in the town of Laramie knew him as well as his former roommate and good friend Romaine Patterson. The two previously lived together in Denver. She talked publicly about Shepard, who was gay, for three minutes at a vigil the day after he died - five days after the attack. "Once I got up and spoke...

You know there must be something happening when the New York Times praises ABC News for running "an intellectually brave episode" of the "20/20" show that has angered the homosexual lobby. That means the Times found it convincing, and so did we. In the November 27 show, "20/20" uncovered the truth about the 1998 murder of Matthew Shepard, widely depicted as a hate crime because he was a homosexual. Almost everything we were told about this murder at the time by ABC, the Times and every other major news organization was false.

"What [Henderson and McKinney] did to Matt was way beyond meth rage," said O'Malley. "I just don't believe it." Last Friday, ABC aired a much-anticipated edition of "20/20" titled "A Murder in Laramie: The Mystery and the Myth" that claimed to re-examine the case and put forth new evidence surrounding the murder. The producers of "20/20" and its host, Elizabeth Vargas, suggested that Shepard was not murdered because he was gay, but because of drugs - specifically methamphetamine - and money. Those closest to the case said they were stunned and sickened by ABC's report, and claimed "20/20" deliberately massaged...

Focus on the Family's asks for apology after Shepard murder revisted -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted: December 11, 2004 1:00 a.m. Eastern © 2004 WorldNetDaily.com Prompted by a TV news investigation questioning whether Matthew Shepard's murder was an "anti-gay hate crime," the traditional-values group Focus on the Family asked NBC News to apologize for suggesting Bible believers were responsible for creating the "climate" in which the attack took place. But NBC defended "Today Show" host Katie Couric for her questions in an an Oct. 12, 1998, interview with the then-governor of Wyoming, where the attack took place.

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) -- In their first public interview since attacking gay college student Matthew Shepard, his killers said they were motivated not by homophobia, but the prospect of robbery to fuel a methamphetamine binge. "He was pretty well-dressed, had a wallet full of money," Aaron McKinney said of meeting Shepard at a Laramie bar in October 1998. "All I wanted to do was beat him up and rob him. ... Seemed like a good idea at the time." The interviews air Friday on ABC's "20/20." The robbery got out of hand, said McKinney and his buddy, Russell Henderson, and...

ABC 20/20 Agrees: Matthew Shepard Murdered During Robbery, Not Hate Crime The 1998 Matthew Shepard murder, portrayed as a hate crime because Shepard was homosexual, was in fact a bungled burglary and not motivated by hate, according to a new ABC 20/20 investigation, which confirms a MassNews exclusive published at the time. However, ABC did not reveal that this legend was begun by Pinch Sulzberger (using the power of both the New York Times and the Boston Globe which he had just inherited) to begin his plan of imposing homosexual “marriage” across the entire nation, beginning in Massachusetts. According to...

ABC is preparing a major investigation of the Matthew Shepard gay-bashing murder that contends it may not have been a hate crime — but a mugging gone wrong. Friends and family of Shepard — who became a national symbol of the senseless violence against gays — as well as gay activists are upset about the report, scheduled to air on "20/20" later this month. [snip] In a press release promoting the show, ABC promised "surprising revelations, including Laramie's underground world of methamphetamine use that may have contributed to the crime and whether or not Shepard knew his killers." "ABC...

Henderson denied relief Attorney Tim Newcomb could ask Supreme Court to review the case By Juliette Rule rep9@wyomingnews.com Published in the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle CHEYENNE - Russell Henderson has been denied his petition for post-conviction relief, and his attorney won't be allowed to amend that petition, which he filed in April. That decision handed down by Albany County District Judge Jeffrey Donnell favors the state but is a blow to the case presented by Laramie attorney Tim Newcomb. He advocated to restore the rights he said were lost by the man serving two consecutive life sentences for his role in the...

I see that English nurses are protesting against the movie The Snake Pit, because it represents nurses as hard and unsympathetic. The curse of today is the Pressure Group, especially in America. You can't take a step without getting picketed by someone. One odd aspect of it is that you can no longer put a negro on the stage unless you make him very dignified. Owing to the activities of the negro pressure group, comic negro characters are absolutely taboo. The result is that all the negro actors are out of work, because the playwrights won't write parts for them....

Henderson wants his rights back If the man convicted of murdering Matthew Shepard is granted post-conviction relief, he could ask for a sentence reduction. By Juliette Rule rep9@wyomingnews.com Published in the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle LARAMIE - Russell Henderson's rights were violated when the state public defender's office failed to discuss the pros and cons of appeal with him, an attorney writes in a motion for post-conviction relief filed Friday. Henderson pleaded guilty April 5, 1999, to the kidnapping and murder of gay University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard. Now Henderson wants to go back to that day and reclaim those limited...

Monument may get new home Phelps' threat spurs mayor's plan to relocate Ten Commandments By Michelle Dynes rep2@wyomingnews.com Published in the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle CHEYENNE - A City Council resolution has been drafted to remove a Ten Commandments monument from Lion's Park. Mayor Jack Spiker presented the document at a news conference Friday. It will be offered to the City Council on Monday. Since this only will be the introduction of the measure, the council will not hold a discussion on it. It will be passed on to the Committee of the Whole for a recommendation. Spiker said the 10th U.S....

CASPER, Wyo., Oct. 28 — Five years after University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard was killed, touching off a national dialogue on gay rights, an anti-gay hate group wants to put up a monument to Shepard’s murder in hiss hometown. The city doesn’t want it, but it is caught in a legal tangle that involves, of all things, the Ten Commandments. AT SHEPARD’S FUNERAL in his hometown of Casper, Wyo., an anti-gay hate group demonstrated in a park across the street, led by the Rev. Fred Phelps, a Baptist minister from Kansas. Now members of Phelps’ group are back in...

Bias-crime law a hard sell in Wyoming By Juliette Rule rep9@wyomingnews.com Published in the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle CHEYENNE - Not so long ago, the U.S. Constitution that protected everyone failed to allow women at the polls. A law changed that, just as it did for blacks who sought equal protection under the stewardship of leaders like the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Such is the argument some make to bring a bias-crime law to the Wyoming Legislature. This state is one of just four that haven't passed a single piece of hate-crime legislation. The Equality State joins Arkansas, Indiana and South...

Rev. Fred Phelps and his Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan., announced plans Thursday to erect a monument in Casper's City Park. The monument would be made of marble or granite, stand 5 to 6 feet in height, with a heavy bronze plaque bearing the face of slain University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard and an inscription reading "MATTHEW SHEPARD, Entered Hell October 12, 1998, in Defiance of God's Warning: 'Thou shalt not lie with mankind as with womankind; it is abomination.' Leviticus 18:22," a letter from the Westboro Baptist Church signed by Phelps sent to the city of Casper...

A 13-year-old boy in Arkansas dies after a horrific sexual crime but much of the national media ignore the story. Conservative columnists and other critics think they know why — because the boy's accused killers are gay. "[The media] doesn't want the public to think about homosexuality and pedophilia and torture and the murder of children," says Don Feder, a conservative columnist at the Boston Herald. The boy, Jesse Dirkhising, was bound, drugged, tortured and raped for five hours before he died in 1999. Last month, a jury convicted Joshua Brown, 23, of rape and murder. Brown was sentenced to...

In their quest to "queer" America, radical homosexual activists in the media destroy lives, as they manipulate the principle of privacy, and make war on traditional masculinity, sports, and even the truth. In late April, Sen. Rick Santorum (R, Pa.) got a taste of what awaits anyone who opposes the gay agenda. After explaining to Associated Press reporter Lara Jakes Jordan (who is married to Sen. John Kerry’s (D, Ma.) campaign manager, Jim Jordan) his opposition to any pro-gay laws or court rulings that might weaken the family, gay activists demanded that Santorum resign. But the Santorum case was only...

Is Katie Couric really the biased liberal that conservatives think she is? Well, let's review: - Media Bias Complaint by Congressman Robert Ehrlich - Media Bias by Jonah Goldberg - A gun rights advocate article notes Couric in her interview with Heston here. - Hate Campaign Over Hate Crimes - Blacks Protest Media Bias Against Cuban-Americans - Katie's Crusades - The leftist media Perhaps the worst is where Katie Couric Alludes to Christian Conservatives in the Death of James Bird and Matthew Shepard (IN VIDEO:Click here) : "Let’s talk a little bit more about the right wing because I know...