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Matthew Shepard: Rest in Peace

Mark Arbour

Entry posted by Mark Arbour

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I'm working on the sequel to "If it Fits" in my "Chronicles of an Academic Predator" series. It's called "Bloodlines" and the first chapter will post in the next few days. The story takes place in 1998, and it was impossible to avoid Matthew Shepard and his tragic ending in October of that year, not that I wanted to. I'd heard of Matthew, I'd heard his story. It was horrible, a senseless waste. But to do the story justice, I felt I needed to draw him in, and that meant I needed to get to know this guy just a little better. So I scoured through his foundation's website, looked up anything else I could find on the web, and pieced together his life in my own mind. I knew that he was beaten up and left for dead in Wyoming. I didn't know he was raped in Morocco when he was in high school. Bad luck seemed to follow him. But I have this vision in my mind of him on that country road, getting the shit beaten out of him, pleading for his life, that just haunts me.

 

Yet for all the bad shit that he endured, his parents, through the Matthew Shepard Foundation, along with others, have really made a difference in the GLBT community. I guess that makes the ending at least bittersweet, to think that in death Matthew may have helped to eliminate some of the tortures he himself endured. Matthew Shepard Foundation

Matthew_Shepard_head_shot.jpg

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hh5

hh5 334

Posted

I did a lot of reading about him too - sometime last year. But one blessing came out ... there is the passing of hate crime legislation this year.

 

Did you check his brothers blog?

 

There are two movies on Mathew.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0267736/

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0257850/

 

I was pondering about adding something of mathew in my story. I just had not have the chance to work on it. I did draft up a good part for the story but it sits in the drawer for now.

Nephylim

Nephylim 14,881

Posted

I am ashamed to admit that until I saw something on this very site about him I had never heard of Matthew Sheppard. When I did hear about him I, too read everything I could find even though it left me a sobbing wreck. I have always found it hard to believe what people will do to other people. How can those men sleep at night, how can they live with what they've done? However, I am a very firm believer in natural justice... what comes around goes around and EVERY action has a reaction, a consequence.

Arpeggio

Arpeggio 2,742

Posted

Yeah, I never found out about him until late last year. It's a shame :(

paya

paya 470

Posted

I didn't know about it either.

 

He was only 22! He had all his life before him. This just makes me more paranoid than I am...

Mark Arbour

Mark Arbour 98,496

Posted

I think, Paya, that one of the good things Matthew left behind was a greater awareness of gay-bashing. Here in the US, the Matthew Shepard Act was finally passed by Congress and signed into law, establishing gay-related violence as a hate crime. So in reality, he probably made it safer out there, so you can actually be less paranoid.

Mark Arbour

Mark Arbour 98,496

Posted

However, I am a very firm believer in natural justice... what comes around goes around and EVERY action has a reaction, a consequence.

 

I'm with you on that. Karma.

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