You can purchase an autographed copy of Anything But Straight by sending a $35 check or money order to:
-------------------------
Wayne Besen
PO Box 25491
Brooklyn, NY 11202
I was dismayed to read in today's New York Times that the fence that hate crime victim Matthew Shepard was tied to and left to die in the cold has been removed. I think generous GLBT donors in the GLBT community should get together and buy the land where he was killed. They should then build a magnificent memorial to Shepard and all hate crime victims. Not only would this keep his memory alive, but it would be a reminder that hate crimes are still happening across America. It would be an opportunity for the media to write about the ongoing problem. And, it could be a cathartic destination for people across the world who have lost a loved one to hate violence.
After a monument is built, it should be designated a state and national historic landmark.
Now, this may not be possible - depending on who owns the land. But, every opportunity should be made to make this happen and we should investigate if such a vision could become a reality.
39 Comments:
Why did it not occur to a single gay activist to secure and preserve the fence? And what a powerful symbol it could have been.
posted by Anonymous, at
9/17/2008 1:59 PM
I'm sorry, but I disagree. There have been hundreds of murders of LGBT people since Matthew Shepard. Many of them were transgendered and/or members of ethnic minorities and never get reported in the mainstream media. If we want to built a memorial to those murdered by homo/transphobia let us do it in an area where it will impact the most number of people. Wyoming is hardly convenient for the vast majority of the country. With our community's limited resources, it would be a shame to built something memorializing this horrible murder in an area where few would have an opportunity to see it and be impacted by it.
posted by Anonymous, at
9/17/2008 2:46 PM
"There have been hundreds of murders of LGBT people since Matthew Shepard..."
Symbols are very powerful. The hundreds you speak of, though no less tragic, would not bring attention to this issue, as the Shepard case has. And, the site would also memorialize all hate crime victims.
The notion of limited resources is false. It is a pie that has consistently expanded over the past twenty years - even as AIDS has claimed the lives of many donors. This is a project that can be done.
posted by Wayne Besen, at
9/17/2008 2:56 PM
the last post is an aj/theo post.I thought you vanashed him, wayne. Please remove it.
In an earlier post, the comment was made: Symbols are very powerful
like the exploitation of the death of Jesus.
Camille Paglia made this point contrasting Obama with his lighte than air pressure gage vs. McCains huge phallic drills penetrating Mother Earth. For or against drilling, symbols do matter. It is time for Obama to his balls proudly and up front. Or we are going to be stuck wigh old doll arms for 4-8 years.
posted by Anonymous, at
9/17/2008 5:14 PM
Speaking of depressing lifestyles. Frequenting a low volume website to bash gays as a way to hide your own gay lusting is hardly a cheerful lifestyle. Fundies would be wise to clean up their own filthy house first. We have seen the Ted Haggards, Sweigarts, and the list is endless. The suicidal wives of wing nut preachers.
AJ/Theo/ethan/kathy, I'd look closer to home if you want to see desperate living. Your writing is riddled with depressogenic rhetoric.
posted by Anonymous, at
9/17/2008 5:22 PM
AJ/Theo/ethan/kathy
the unholy trinity (plus one)
there are all the same butt ugly "undoable" dork
posted by Anonymous, at
9/17/2008 5:23 PM
Anonymous, The following is in response to your lack of humanity and sources:
The attack Shortly after midnight on October 7, 1998, 21-year-old Shepard met McKinney and Henderson in a bar. McKinney and Henderson offered Shepard a ride in their car.[3] Subsequently, Shepard was robbed, pistol whipped, tortured, tied to a fence in a remote, rural area, and left to die. McKinney and Henderson also found out his address and intended to burglarize his home. Still tied to the fence, Shepard was discovered eighteen hours later by a cyclist, who at first thought that Shepard was a scarecrow. At the time of discovery, Shepard was still alive, but in a coma.
Shepard suffered a fracture from the back of his head to the front of his right ear. He had severe brain stem damage, which affected his body's ability to regulate heart rate, body temperature and other vital signs. There were also about a dozen small lacerations around his head, face and neck. His injuries were deemed too severe for doctors to operate. Shepard never regained consciousness and remained on full life support. As he lay in intensive care, candlelight vigils were held by the people of Laramie.[4]
He was pronounced dead at 12:53 A.M. on October 12, 1998 at Poudre Valley Hospital in Fort Collins.[5][6][7][8] Police arrested McKinney and Henderson shortly thereafter, finding the bloody gun as well as the victim's shoes and wallet in their truck.[9]
The two men had attempted to get their girlfriends to provide alibis.[10]
[edit] The trial During court cases both of the defendants used varying stories to defend their actions. They attempted to use the "gay panic defense", arguing that they were driven to temporary insanity by Shepard's alleged sexual advances toward them. At another point they stated that they had only wanted to rob Shepard and never intended to kill him. [11]
The prosecutor in the case charged that McKinney and Henderson pretended to be gay in order to gain Shepard's trust to rob him.[12] During the trial, Chastity Pasley and Kristen Price (the pair's then-girlfriends) testified under oath that Henderson and McKinney both plotted beforehand to rob a gay man. McKinney and Henderson then went to the Fireside Lounge and selected Shepard as their target. McKinney alleged that Shepard asked them for a ride home. After befriending him, they took him to a remote area of Laramie where they robbed him, beat him severely (media reports often contained the graphic account of the pistol whipping and his smashed skull), and tied him to a fence with a rope from McKinney's truck. Both girlfriends also testified that neither McKinney nor Henderson were on drugs at the time.[13][14]
Henderson pleaded guilty on April 5, 1999, and agreed to testify against McKinney to avoid the death penalty; he received two consecutive life sentences. The jury in McKinney's trial found him guilty of felony murder. As it began to deliberate on the death penalty, Shepard's parents brokered a deal, resulting in McKinney receiving two consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole.[2]
Henderson and McKinney were incarcerated in the Wyoming State Penitentiary in Rawlins but were transferred to a Nevada prison due to overcrowding.[15]
[edit] ABC's 20/20 report In late 2004, ABC's Elizabeth Vargas reported on an investigation into the murder for the television program 20/20. Though Vargas primarily relied on personal interviews with people involved with the matter, the report was billed as exploring "New Details Emerging in the Matthew Shepard Murder."[16] At the forefront was the possibility that the murder had in fact been motivated by drugs rather than Shepard's sexual orientation. McKinney, Henderson and Kristen Price (McKinney's girlfriend) claimed in these interviews that the attack was a result of heavy drug use, a robbery and a beating gone awry.[17] Price, in her interview with Vargas, ultimately openly remarked: "I do not think it was a hate crime at all. I never did."[17] This statement contradicted Price's first interview with 20/20 in 1998, in which she said (of McKinney and Henderson's attack): "They just wanted to beat him bad enough to teach him a lesson, not to come on to straight people, and don’t be aggressive about it anymore,”[18]. In the report, Price and McKinney's long-time friend Tom O'Conner, on whose property McKinney and Price once lived, also stated that they believed McKinney was bisexual. However, when Vargas asked McKinney whether he had ever had a sexual experience with another male, he said that he had not.[19]
Retired Police Chief of Laramie, Commander Dave O'Malley — who was also interviewed by ABC and criticized the 20/20 report — pointed out that the drug motive does not necessarily disqualify the anti-gay motive: “My feelings have been that the initial contact was probably motivated by robbery because they needed money. What they got was $20 and a pair of shoes ... then something changed and changed profoundly... But, we will never, ever know because Matt’s dead and I don’t trust what [McKinney and Henderson] said.”[20]
Anonymous (the post before mine), put a sock in it. Only some homophobe or self-hating ex-gay would use this as a podium for the kind of crap you have written here.
posted by Anonymous, at
9/17/2008 5:26 PM
I am really sorry...I meant the homophobic "Anonymous".
I do agree that he needs to go back to ex-gay hell. He obviously wants to be part of the gay community, but doesn't have the BALLS to come out and tell the ex-gay wing nuts where to go and how to get there. Contemptible.
posted by Anonymous, at
9/17/2008 5:31 PM
I've been thinking a LOT about Matthew. His death was a crucifixion in the absolutely most literal manner. I've been working on a series of eastern orthodox style icons to honor what was his passion and crucifixion (passion come from the latin "passus," which means to suffer, as matthew suffered when he was tortured and had previously been assaulted for being gay. They take time but I'll post a link maybe when they're finished - they'll definitely be on my website.
Oh, and fyi, while i'm jewish, i love icons so i've been studying and making them for years now.
posted by Emily K, at
9/17/2008 7:58 PM
After the homophobic murder of Matthew, my Episcopal church had a beautiful display of a section of rustic that was a close replica of the one Matt died on. He in fact was an episcopalian, I'd argue an Episcopalian saint. If he had lived, no one knows where his life would have taken him. We are not able to know this, except through self deceiving conjecture. The point is that he should have had the chance to life out the life that he had. It is just a simple fact that some of the worst murders have been against gays. People of all demographics can murder or be murdered, but there is something about homosexuality that can enrage people. I live in a gay neighborhood, and am sadden by the frequency that an angry violent voice will shout out "faggot" as they drive past. There are many blacks in the area, But I have NEVER heard someone shout "nigger". Gay really is the new baclk in this sense. This is really due to the Calvanist evangelical mandate to spread the word. To project a message that no one is requesting or looking for, but instead is acosted with. This really is the first step toward violance. I have never heard a straight person say that a gay person would approach them cold turkey trying to convience them of the wonders of the gay "theology" and how they should engage in the "sexual lithergy" of gay desire. But for the evangelical it is a mandate. When the evangelical puts forth their case is always pepered with criptic aggression. The threat of hell and the torture therin, the scolding or an angry parent ready to inact corporal punishment can be felt. The disregard for the person hood of the disinterested target is expressed with a statement that you have been warned. Warned of punishment (violence) for not heeding the threat. One can really not see another as truly human if you believe they are so evil and worthless as to deserve eternal punishment for crimes that are not in any way eternal. These are really the truly dispicable people of this world.
posted by Anonymous, at
9/17/2008 8:47 PM
Thanks Wayne for removing the post of Aj/Theo/perhaps karen, etc
I am told that there is software that can identify posters by writing style. Aj/theo has a distinctive style that can easly be detected. Multiple short paragraphs with double spacing. Also and almost psychopathic lack of empathy for people, in this case, gays.
posted by Anonymous, at
9/17/2008 8:58 PM
He wouldn't be an adequate symbol if he wasn't young, white, and cute. That's not to take away from him or his case (at all!), it's....just interesting to see what achieves symbolism and what doesn't.
posted by Joey, at
9/17/2008 9:17 PM
There ought to be a symbol in every church for those who have been unjustly persecuted by so called christians. And this plea to memorialize Matthew Shepard needs to be brought up with the conservative church and get a response from them. Here's an opportunity for them to step up to the plate and christian up.
posted by Anonymous, at
9/18/2008 1:29 AM
Joey7777, Wayne actually made a somewhat similar point about the effectiveness of his image as a gay martyr in "Anything But Straight" - that because he was white, college-educated, and middle class, people in power were more able to relate and feel affected by this vicious crime. It's a shame that someone like Lawrence King - darker-skinned, poor, and orphaned - did not inspire as much of a reaction.
posted by Emily K, at
9/18/2008 3:47 PM
Moreso than Lawrence King, Emily, the African-American gays and lesbians quite regularly murdered in their own communities. But, to be politically-correct, the activists will NEVER choose as their symbol a case where the perpetrator is anything but Caucasian. Who committed the crime is just as important as the victim when choosing the symbolic case.
posted by Joey, at
9/18/2008 6:26 PM
You know, come to think of it, I don't think I've ever looked at a photo or read something from Besen that had blacks represented. Perhaps his publicists thinks it would not get enough attention for the cause? Just noticing.
posted by Anonymous, at
9/18/2008 9:23 PM
Anon : I don't know if Mr. Besen is obliged to do that. I think his issues are sort of....pan-racial.
posted by Joey, at
9/18/2008 10:22 PM
Wayne has endorsed Obama for President and has had his picture all over the site when the story is about him. Plus, he has black people in his brochures and is a leader against discrimination and bigotry. Of course, pictures or videos from Alaska would have a dearth of black folks because of the population out here. But Wayne's fight is everyone's fight, and he has never, EVER excluded anyone!
posted by Anonymous, at
9/19/2008 12:32 PM
But no pictures or claims of friendship? He supports Obama as a lesser of two evils. Remember Obama had Donny McClurkin on his team?
Hmmmmm.....
And Obama is half white - we all know that. What about the truly African American? Why is he/she left out of the pictures? Or is she/he relegated to background work and research?
Don't defend something you don't know. Look at the evidence.
posted by Anonymous, at
9/19/2008 9:47 PM
anon : I suspect you're bringing up a non-issue just to be troublesome.
posted by Joey, at
9/20/2008 4:21 AM
Not really Joey. It's an obeservation that you seem to be trying to sweep under the rug? Why are you so protective of something you don't know about. Are that close to Besen that you may answer these delicate questions for him? I don't call racism a non-issue when a person puts himself out there as a civil rights activist.
posted by Anonymous, at
9/20/2008 10:04 PM
Just in terms of the number of victims, wouldn't it be more meaningful to take the money that it would cost to build Besen's proposed Matthew Shepard memorial and instead put up a large neon-lit billboard that says:
BAREBACKING IS A DEATHSTYLE OVER HALF A MILLION GAY MEN DEAD FROM AIDS IN THE U.S. ALONE
...right across from the production facilities of Treasure Island Media, or other destructive cultural forces that are part of our own community?
(Not that the glamorization of barebacking is the only serious problem created by gays, for gays -- I'm just using it as an example of something that has caused a lot more gay suffering than hate-motivated murders, but that isn't quite as fashionable to get outraged about.)
posted by Throbert, at
9/21/2008 1:46 AM
Rob McGee has a hang up with anal sex (actually gaining popularity with hetros, especially since the abstanance craze). Not me though. I love to fcuk ass. But having seen rob's pic, not his ass.
posted by Anonymous, at
9/21/2008 6:13 PM
Rob McGee,
Wouldn't it better spent educating people in the church on Paul's Letters to the Corinthians and see how compasionate, civil, and level headed he was with them?
My goodness, you may not agree with homosexuality (and by the way that does include lesbians whom you fail to recognize as not having a STD attached to them) but your manner in speaking and communicating is as vulgar as any uneducated person I know.
If you truly want to reach out to a group of people, get to know them as people. That is what Paul does. He knew their culture, their literature, understood their religions, etc...
You have proven nothing except to be a bigoted, uneducated, not knowing of the gay community, clanging of symbols person typified in the new testament.
Now, I think the money would be better spent by both groups holding a symposium together on how to reach out those murderers and people of their ilk.
Christian, gay Christian, Mormon, Jew, Gentile - whatever - we can all pretty much agree that killing someone for drugs or sexual orientation is wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong.
That symposium would prove to be a bridge building event - much better in social movement and civli rights movement than the "heres lies a victim" monument.
posted by Anonymous, at
9/21/2008 8:11 PM
feeling good was good enough for me, good enough for me and my bobby McGee
posted by Anonymous, at
9/21/2008 10:32 PM
I am doing a memorial on Myspace called Keeping memories alive of Matthew Shepard I would llove for people to please check out his site and I am also doing a myspace pmemorial for gay hate crime victims called "How many more gay murders before you get involved please feel free to check it out as well
posted by Unknown, at
9/21/2008 11:45 PM
Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose.
posted by Anonymous, at
9/22/2008 1:45 PM
For the record:
(1) "Rob McGee" is my real name;
(2) I've been sexually active with other men since 1991; and
(3) I've been out of the closet about my homosexuality TO EVERYONE since 1993.
YOu still have a hang up with butt sex (loooove it).
Can we call you tits McGee for short?
posted by Anonymous, at
9/23/2008 1:03 PM
Mr. McGee is correct though about barebacking. I'm sure it's killed more gay males in the U.S. than queer-bashing ever did. (It's like the big fuss being made over someone hanging that noose down in Jena, when more blacks are killed every year by each other by firearms than were ever lynched in the entire history of the U.S.) Still, though, I think there's room enough to tackle more than one cause, and some people DO die from queer-bashing, and I have no problem with the Matthew Shepard thing being a symbol of that.
posted by Joey, at
9/23/2008 4:22 PM
agreed, joey that activity should be reserved for intimate comitted relationships.Dan Savage makes this point. even with protection, one should not engage in this activity on a first date.
posted by Anonymous, at
9/23/2008 5:22 PM
I think Tits McGee has issues.
posted by Anonymous, at
9/23/2008 5:23 PM
The person picking n McGee has issues.
posted by Anonymous, at
9/24/2008 3:04 PM
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posted by Anonymous, at
2/24/2009 2:21 AM
