Matthew Shepard was murdered in a brutal anti-gay hate-crime. 20 years later, his parents say they're alarmed at the rise in hate-motivated attacks.
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00:00He was just trying to live his life, just like we all do, and he wasn't given that opportunity.
00:14The only thing that gets easier over time is to talk about Matt and to talk about some of the
00:22issues around Matt and all marginalized communities and discrimination. It's never easy
00:30knowing that you've lost your son because he was considered different.
00:44What I want people to remember the most about Matt, Matt's legacy,
00:47that he was a human being. He had fears and flaws and joy, sorrow.
01:00Matt was still in the hospital. We had a little bit of hope still, but we began to receive
01:12a lot of correspondence requests, really, from parents of gay kids and friends and family,
01:19really, of the gay community, wanting us to use our voice to try to make people understand that
01:23the gay community is just people like everybody else. We were accepting parents who loved Matt
01:28and who lost him to a terrible act of violence, but other folks still had their children, and
01:35they should welcome them back into their family.
01:59Being able to do this, to be able to speak and feel like I'm still part of
02:03Matt's family, his community, his peers, and really part of Matt's life,
02:08this was my survival, giving me a reason to get up every day to do the work,
02:12and it's been very gratifying. It keeps Matt still with me.
02:28Now it's our primary focus because hate crimes have increased in number, and reporting is
02:38not happening in equal numbers because people are afraid. They're afraid to be
02:41re-victimized by law enforcement or retaliation when they report a crime.
02:46Just like the concern we have with immigrants, why would you report a hate crime if there's a
02:55chance you're going to be deported? For the LGBTQ community, why would you report a hate crime in
03:02one of 30 states where you'd still be fired for being LGBTQ?
03:07Because gay rights is a buzz word, a buzz term to upset people that somebody's getting
03:27something special. What we're talking about here are equal rights for American citizens.