Matthew Shepard (December 1, 1976 – October 12, 1998)
On October 6, 1998, a 21-year old student, Matthew Shepard was taken from a bar, robbed, beaten, tortured, and tied to a wooden fence near Laramie, Wyoming. He was discovered alive in near-freezing temperatures by a cyclist who initially mistook him for a scarecrow, after 18 hours in a coma still tied to the fence after the attack. Shepard’s face was completely covered in blood, except for two streams of tears down his face. He died 6 days later from severe head injuries. Shepard’s horrific murder brought national and international attention to LGBT rights and hate crime legislation at the state and federal levels.
His killers left him to die without remorse or conscience because he was gay.
