DENVER, Colo. — A sweeping federal court verdict invalidating California’s ban on same-sex marriages “moves America closer to its ideals of respecting individual freedom and treating all citizens equally under the law,” Matthew Shepard Foundation board president Judy Shepard said Wednesday. Shepard, the mother of 1998 Wyoming anti-gay hate crime victim Matthew Shepard, serves on…
At the invitation of the National Israeli LGBT Task Force, Judy and Dennis Shepard will visit Tel Aviv from July 31 to August 2 to speak at a conference marking the launch of The Nir Katz Center for Violence, Discrimination and Homophobia Reports. Judy Shepard will participate as a keynote speaker at the official annual…
Annual statistics for 2008 collected by local law enforcement agencies nationwide show an 11 percent increase in hate crimes based on sexual orientation, according to a report released by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. While the overall number of hate crimes of any kind grew by about 2 percent from 2007 to 2008, the 11…
Dennis and I, and the entire board and staff of the Matthew Shepard Foundation, stand with all who are grieving the loss of Jorge Steven Lopez Mercado in one of the most shockingly brutal hate crimes in Puerto Rico’s history. While we are grateful to the local law enforcement officials for their swift work to…
“Today, Dennis and I and the board and staff of the Matthew Shepard Foundation send our heartfelt condolences to the family of U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy, who passed away this morning after a valiant struggle with cancer. “In the years since Matthew was taken from us, Sen. Kennedy proved himself a true friend, reaching out…
In October 1998 I was a reporter at the Casper (Wyo.) Star-Tribune covering politics, the energy industry and the environment. I was 26 years old and only out of the closet to friends, family and a handful of my newsroom colleagues. One afternoon the editor unexpectedly asked me into the conference room. Arrayed on the…