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.

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.

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

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...

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.

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.