Matthew Shepherd Foundation

I remember when I heard about it. It was an ordinary day at work. I had the radio on. I didn't want to care about it. I had enough to care about.

I had been assaulted myself- many times. I'm alive myself because I've got a thick head. In fact all the fuss over a run of the mill gay bashing made me angry. When it had happened to me, the cops were completely disinterested.

It didn't really hit me until I saw the picture. He looked like a little kid. It made me sick. It made me ashamed for the way I had felt. There but for the grace of my own thick skull go I.

When he died, it pissed me off. It incited me to action. I became one of those obnoxious gay activists that you hear about. I don't know if I've done any good and I have paid a serious price for speaking out.

Silence is surrender. Silence in the face of those that would deny us our rights and even our lives is a kind of cowardliness that I can't live with. Silence is an tacit vote of approval for the thousand little indignities that GLBT people are forced to endure.

I will be Silent no more.