Comments on: The Daily Agenda for Thursday, October 6 http://www.boxturtlebulletin.com/2011/10/06/37650 News, analysis and fact-checking of anti-gay rhetoric Thu, 23 May 2013 06:14:19 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4.2 By: Timothy Kincaid http://www.boxturtlebulletin.com/2011/10/06/37650/comment-page-1#comment-107844 Timothy Kincaid Thu, 06 Oct 2011 17:11:18 +0000 http://www.boxturtlebulletin.com/?p=37650#comment-107844 <i>Matthew Shepard Assaulted: 1998</i> Thirteen years later and still reading this headline made my pulse increase, my jaw clench, and my eyes narrow and start to moisten. Thirteen years later and a visceral response to a name and date. It's peculiar how an event that really isn't all that unique somehow put together all the elements necessary for a sea shift. There were a lot of gay people who had suffered at the fists of bigotry, beatings and deaths that went largely unnoted. But this time a small kid, fragile really, found in a rural city tied to a fence with cross-shaped posts, at just the right moment, changed us completely. The country held its breath over the next few days, until he was gone, and still has not forgotten. Like lunar landings, the execution of a civil rights leader, the fall of the soviet empire, and the election of a black president, the death of Matthew Sheppard was a cultural milestone, a reference point. Before Matt, the mental image of a 'fag bashing' was some seedy fellow in a park who was lurking around the kiddies and got what was coming to him. But after October 1998, whenever the country heard of anti-gay violence, it was Matt they pictured. They still do. The anti-gays try hard to play up Matt's flaws in hopes that by tarnishing his image it will diminish his impact. They fail to recognize that Matt's flaws are what give his death power. He wasn't some idol, some picture of perfection. He was cute but not striking, a good kid but not angelic, a student who strived but also got lazy; in short, Matthew Sheppard was anyone's kid. And this change in perspective played an essential role in the change in politics in this country. No longer just "them", after Matthew gay people became "ours". No event stands alone, of course, and had it not been Matthew Sheppard it would have been another kid. But his death truly did shift the thinking of the nation. In looking back, the accidental crucifix imagery was an omen of the importance of what had happened that night thirteen years ago in Laramie. In a way, Matthew Sheppard died so that we might be free. Matthew Shepard Assaulted: 1998

Thirteen years later and still reading this headline made my pulse increase, my jaw clench, and my eyes narrow and start to moisten. Thirteen years later and a visceral response to a name and date.

It’s peculiar how an event that really isn’t all that unique somehow put together all the elements necessary for a sea shift. There were a lot of gay people who had suffered at the fists of bigotry, beatings and deaths that went largely unnoted. But this time a small kid, fragile really, found in a rural city tied to a fence with cross-shaped posts, at just the right moment, changed us completely.

The country held its breath over the next few days, until he was gone, and still has not forgotten. Like lunar landings, the execution of a civil rights leader, the fall of the soviet empire, and the election of a black president, the death of Matthew Sheppard was a cultural milestone, a reference point.

Before Matt, the mental image of a ‘fag bashing’ was some seedy fellow in a park who was lurking around the kiddies and got what was coming to him. But after October 1998, whenever the country heard of anti-gay violence, it was Matt they pictured. They still do.

The anti-gays try hard to play up Matt’s flaws in hopes that by tarnishing his image it will diminish his impact. They fail to recognize that Matt’s flaws are what give his death power. He wasn’t some idol, some picture of perfection. He was cute but not striking, a good kid but not angelic, a student who strived but also got lazy; in short, Matthew Sheppard was anyone’s kid.

And this change in perspective played an essential role in the change in politics in this country. No longer just “them”, after Matthew gay people became “ours”. No event stands alone, of course, and had it not been Matthew Sheppard it would have been another kid. But his death truly did shift the thinking of the nation.

In looking back, the accidental crucifix imagery was an omen of the importance of what had happened that night thirteen years ago in Laramie. In a way, Matthew Sheppard died so that we might be free.

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