Posted on 10/26/2018 9:33:46 AM PDT by Ennis85
The death of a gay student, tortured and tied to a prairie fence in Wyoming two decades ago, shocked America. As Matthew Shepard's ashes are interred in the nation's spiritual home, those who knew him reflect on his remarkable legacy.
It was the dental brace.
That's how Judy and Dennis Shepard knew it was their son in the hospital bed.
"Bandages and stitches all over his face," Judy says, "and bandages around his head where the final blow had crushed his brain stem.
"His fingers and toes were curled in a comatose position already. Tubes everywhere enabling his body to stay alive.
"One of his eyes was partially open so you could see his blue eyes and the tubes in his mouth. You could see his braces, so of course it's Matt.
"His face was swollen, actually kind of unrecognisable till you got closer."
Two nights earlier, on Tuesday 6 October 1998, Matthew Shepard walked alone into a dive bar in Laramie.
The openly gay University of Wyoming freshman had just met up with friends to plan LGBT awareness week on the town's campus.
But he couldn't persuade them to join him for a beer afterwards.
At the Fireside Lounge, the 21-year-old somehow ended up chatting to two roofing workers, Russell Henderson and Aaron McKinney, both the same age as him.
The pair saw an easy mark in the 5ft 2in, slightly built student.
Albany County Sheriff Dave O'Malley, who was lead investigator in the case, says: "McKinney's own statement said he and Russell went into the bathroom at the Fireside bar and they planned to act like they were gay to try to gain Matthew's confidence.
"And so the sexual orientation issue started right at the beginning of that contact."
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
Yes, and he also had pedophilia in his past.
Book of Mark was a remarkably well-researched book. He really was a bad kid and was disliked by many in that town long before his death.
Correct me if I’m wrong but doesn’t the church where he’s going to be buried condemn homosexuality???
"...drug deal gone bad into gay martyrdom..."
There used to be a radio talk show host in Denver named Jay Marvin, who would call people 'brain stem', or simply 'stem'.
Did not change me, paid no attention to it.
It is the same way that a good man and American hero like Joseph McCarthy was able to be slandered and destroyed by the Left, who set the narrative via their allies in the Media, and have it last for 65+ years.
They tell the lie, hammer it over and over and over, repeat it in the media, include it in the history books, obliterate any dissenting views that contradict their narrative, and ensure the lie is cemented forever.
It is the way the Soviets handled this kind of thing.
They should put his ashes in a crack pipe.
The Cathedral has become over the years more of a secular concern, with administration and policy more on the lines of a tourist attraction, like the Alamo or Monticello. But it has its roots in the Episcopal tradition, which is anything but opposed to homosexuality.
I agree - it should not happen to anyone, gay or straight,
but the way it was presented in the media was he was just
some meek kid that wondered into some bar of rednecks and
they took advantage of him.
Hardly a word about him knowing the assailants, his drug
trafficking or owing one of them lots of money for drugs, etc.
Oops.
Sorry, the book is “Book of Matt”, not “Book of Mark”
I followed you right into the mistake, lol!
Oh, no, I don’t want anyone to think I condone murder in any way. But he was one strange kid.
Ah, thanks for the clarification!
And then even “conservatives” eagerly use the term McCarthyism in a pejorative sense.
I know. It really irritates me.
The whole McCarthy thing was one of two things, once I learned the truth about it, that just put the screws in my dealings with Leftists.
The other was reading the book “Witness”.
I was like many of those conservatives at one point who thought McCarthy was a bad man. It was all I had ever been told, in movies, in books, in school, by teachers and public figures I TRUSTED. Then, to learn the truth. It disgusted me to realize that I had swallowed the lies hook, line, and sinker. But I determined to never let the opportunity pass to speak out against the slander of that good man, though I fully realize many conservatives who still use his name as a pejorative as you described it, simply don’t know. They only know what they were told, and like me, sucked it up and became suckers for it. It is one of the main reasons I despise the Left.
He should be a hero, and be celebrated. He probably purchased, with his life and reputation, several decades of breathing room against Leftism in general and communism in particular. At one time, there was no particular stigma to being a communist. He changed that for decades and drove them out of American life, or at least drove them underground. We have him to thank for those decades.
My bible on this subject is “Blacklisted by History: The Untold Story of Senator Joe McCarthy and His Fight Against America’s Enemies”. I wrote a letter to the author to thank him for writing that book. You know that sometimes, you hear something, and it simply has the ring of truth to it?
That was his book. It had the ring of truth to it.
Meth is a scourge on our landscape.
Just now ordered from Amazon. “Blacklisted by History...”
Thank you!
You bet....the perfidy of the Leftis fully on display and indistinguishable from what you see today.
I have the audiobook, hardcover, and kindle version for marking up.
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