25 years after Matthew Shepard’s death, LGBTQ+ activists say equal-rights progress is at risk
25 years after Matthew Shepard’s death, LGBTQ+ activists say equal-rights progress is at risk
FILE - Brian Harrington, right, and Chuck Beauchine pray with other mourners during the funeral of Matthew Shepard at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church Friday, Oct. 16, 1998, in Casper, Wyo. Shepard, an openly gay University of Wyoming student, died Monday from a beating in Laramie, Wyoming that’s widely considered to have been at least in part motivated by his sexual orientation. (AP Photo/Michael S. Green, File)
FILE - This 1998 photo provided by the Matthew Shepard Foundation shows Matthew Shepard. The murder of Shepard, a gay University of Wyoming student, was a watershed moment for gay rights and LGBTQ+ acceptance in the U.S. (Judy Shepard/The Matthew Shepard Foundation via AP, File)
FILE - A cross made of stones rests below the fence in Laramie, Wyo., on Oct. 9, 1999, where a year earlier, University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard was tied and pistol whipped into a coma. He later died. The murder of Shepard was a watershed moment for gay rights and LGBTQ+ acceptance in the U.S. (AP Photo/Ed Andrieski, File)
FILE - Demonstrators James Jenner, of Boston, left, and James Murphy, of Cambridge, Mass., center, chant slogans while showing their support for same-sex marriage in front of the Statehouse, in Boston, Thursday, March 11, 2004. Several thousand people on both sides of the same-sex marriage debate gathered in front of the Statehouse Thursday as state legislators debate a constitutional ban on gay marriage. (AP Photo/Steven Senne, File)
FILE - A window display at a wedding shop, in Provincetown, Mass., Saturday, May 15, 2004, features figurines of the same sex paired together on a wedding cake on the weekend before gay marriage becomes legal in Massachusetts. Provincetown, long considered a destination for gay and lesbian couples to vacation and relax, is expected to soon become a location where they may marry as well. (AP Photo/Julia Cumes, File)
FILE - Hillary, right, and Julie Goodridge, left, lead plaintiffs in the Massachusetts gay marriage lawsuit, raise their right hands and affirm that everything on their marriage license is correct while at Boston City Hall in Boston, Monday May 17, 2004. The couple, who are getting married later Monday, are getting their marriage license. With back to camera is Boston registrar Judith McCarthy. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa, File)
FILE - President Barack Obama, reacts with the mother of Matthew Shepard, Judy Shepard, second left, and James Byrd Jr.'s sisters, Louvon Harris, left, and Betty Byrd Boatner, second right, during a White House reception commemorating the enactment of the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2009, in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)
FILE - From left, Petty Officer Autumn Sandeen, Lt. Dan Choi, Cpl. Evelyn Thomas and Capt. Jim Pietrangelo II, stand outside the White House on Tuesday, April 16, 2010, after they handcuffed themselves to the fence during a protest for gay rights in Washington, demanding that President Obama keep his promise to repeal “don’t ask, don’t tell.” On Sept. 20, 2011, the repeal of U.S. military’s 18-year-old compromise policy took effect, allowing gay and lesbian service members to serve openly. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File)
FILE - Revelers celebrate in front of the Stonewall Inn in Manhattan’s west village following the passing of the same sex marriage bill by a vote of 33 to 29, Friday, June 24, 2011, in New York. Same-sex marriage is now legal in New York after Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed a bill that was narrowly passed by state lawmakers Friday, handing activists a breakthrough victory in the state where the gay rights movement was born. The gay rights movement is considered to have started with the Stonewall riots in New York City’s Greenwich Village in 1969. (AP Photo/Louis Lanzano, File)
FILE - Sgt. Brandon Morgan, right, kisses his partner, Dalan Wells, in a helicopter hangar at the Marine base in Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii upon returning from a six-month deployment to Afghanistan on Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2012. The photo, made some five months after the repeal of the military’s “don’t ask don’t tell” policy prohibiting gay servicemen from openly acknowledging their sexuality, was among the first showing a gay active duty serviceman in uniform kissing his partner at a homecoming. (AP Photo/David Lewis, File)
FILE - Seth Keel, center, is consoled by his boyfriend, Ian Chambers, left, and his mother Jill Hinton, during a concession speech at an Amendment One opposition party in downtown Raleigh, N.C., on Tuesday, May 8, 2012. North Carolina voters approved the constitutional amendment Tuesday defining marriage solely as a union between a man and a woman, becoming the latest state to effectively stop same-sex marriages. (Travis Long/The News & Observer via AP, File)
FILE - John Lewis, left, and Stuart Gaffney embrace outside San Francisco’s City Hall shortly before the U.S. Supreme Court ruling cleared the way for same-sex marriage in California on Wednesday, June 26, 2013. The justices issued two 5-4 rulings in their final session of the term. One decision wiped away part of a federal anti-gay marriage law that has kept legally married same-sex couples from receiving tax, health and pension benefits. The other was a technical legal ruling that said nothing at all about same-sex marriage, but left in place a trial court’s declaration that California’s Proposition 8 is unconstitutional. (AP Photo/Noah Berger, File)
FILE - A crowd celebrates outside of the Supreme Court in Washington after the court declared that same-sex couples have a right to marry anywhere in the U.S., on Friday, June 26, 2015. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)
FILE - In this Friday, June 26, 2015 file photo, people gather in Lafayette Park to see the White House illuminated with rainbow colors in commemoration of the Supreme Court’s ruling to legalize same-sex marriage in Washington. President Barack Obama, who was inside, said a few days later, “To see people gathered in the evening outside on a beautiful summer night, and to feel whole and to feel accepted, and to feel that they had a right to love _ that was pretty cool.” (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File)
FILE - Jose Hernandez, center, joins hands with Victor Baez, right, as they mourn the loss of their friends Amanda Alvear and Mercedez Flores who were killed in the mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub, as they visit a makeshift memorial, Monday, June 13, 2016, in Orlando, Fla. (AP Photo/David Goldman, File)
FILE - Crowd members hold up candles during a vigil downtown for the victims of a mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub Monday, June 13, 2016, in Orlando, Fla. (AP Photo/David Goldman, File)
FILE - John Erler protests as the Senate State Affairs Committee begin hearings about Senate Bill 6 at the Texas Capitol, Tuesday, March 7, 2017, in Austin, Texas. The the transgender “bathroom bill” would require people to use public bathrooms and restrooms that correspond with the sex on their birth certificate. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)
FILE - A supporter, left, of Georgia’s gender-diverse community, speaks to a counter-protester as he speaks to protest against the gender-diverse community during a march for transgender rights through the city’s Midtown district in Atlanta on Saturday, Oct. 12, 2019. The march was part of the annual Gay Pride Festival. (AP Photo/Robin Rayne, File)
FILE - Protester hold signs as University of Pennsylvania transgender athlete Lia Thomas competes in the 200 freestyle finals at the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships Friday, March 18, 2022, at Georgia Tech in Atlanta. Thomas finished tied for fifth place. (AP Photo/John Bazemore, File)
FILE - Disney cast member Nicholas Maldonado protests his company’s stance on LGBTQ issues, while participating in an employee walkout at Walt Disney World, Tuesday, March 22, 2022, in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack, File)
FILE - Attendees congregate at a rally against gender affirming care at War Memorial Plaza in Nashville, Tenn., Friday, Oct. 21, 2022. Top Tennessee Republicans on Friday vowed to push for some of the strictest anti-transgender policies in the United States at a rally Friday, where hundreds of people cheered in support as LGBTQ rights activists yelled back in protest. (Nicole Hester/The Tennessean via AP, File)
FILE - Tyrice Kelley, center right, a performer at Club Q, is comforted during a service held at All Souls Unitarian Church following an overnight fatal shooting at the gay nightclub, in Colorado Springs, Colo., on Sunday, Nov. 20, 2022. (Parker Seibold/The Gazette via AP, File)
FILE - Noah Reich, left, and David Maldonado, the Los Angeles co-founders of Classroom of Compassion, put up a memorial with photographs of the five victims of a weekend mass shooting at a nearby gay nightclub on Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2022, in Colorado Springs, Colo. Anderson Lee Aldrich opened fire at Club Q, in which five people were killed and others suffered gunshot wounds before patrons tackled and beat the suspect into submission. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, File)
FILE - Christine Cox, center, a parent of a transgender teenager, becomes emotional after speaking to state Sen. Carden Summers, R-Cordele, rear left, outside the Senate at the Capitol in Atlanta on Monday, March 20, 2023. Activists appeared at the Capitol to protest SB 140, a bill sponsored by Summers that would prevent medical professionals from giving transgender children certain hormones or surgical treatment. (Arvin Temkar/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, File)
FILE - Participants hold a large transgender flag during the 31st annual Queens Pride Parade and Multicultural Festival, Sunday, June. 4, 2023, in New York. Transgender and nonbinary people are front and center this year at Pride festivals where they’ve often been sidelined. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura, File)
FILE - Brian Harrington, right, and Chuck Beauchine pray with other mourners during the funeral of Matthew Shepard at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church Friday, Oct. 16, 1998, in Casper, Wyo. Shepard, an openly gay University of Wyoming student, died Monday from a beating in Laramie, Wyoming that’s widely considered to have been at least in part motivated by his sexual orientation. (AP Photo/Michael S. Green, File)
FILE - Brian Harrington, right, and Chuck Beauchine pray with other mourners during the funeral of Matthew Shepard at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church Friday, Oct. 16, 1998, in Casper, Wyo. Shepard, an openly gay University of Wyoming student, died Monday from a beating in Laramie, Wyoming that’s widely considered to have been at least in part motivated by his sexual orientation. (AP Photo/Michael S. Green, File)
FILE - This 1998 photo provided by the Matthew Shepard Foundation shows Matthew Shepard. The murder of Shepard, a gay University of Wyoming student, was a watershed moment for gay rights and LGBTQ+ acceptance in the U.S. (Judy Shepard/The Matthew Shepard Foundation via AP, File)
FILE - This 1998 photo provided by the Matthew Shepard Foundation shows Matthew Shepard. The murder of Shepard, a gay University of Wyoming student, was a watershed moment for gay rights and LGBTQ+ acceptance in the U.S. (Judy Shepard/The Matthew Shepard Foundation via AP, File)
FILE - A cross made of stones rests below the fence in Laramie, Wyo., on Oct. 9, 1999, where a year earlier, University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard was tied and pistol whipped into a coma. He later died. The murder of Shepard was a watershed moment for gay rights and LGBTQ+ acceptance in the U.S. (AP Photo/Ed Andrieski, File)
FILE - A cross made of stones rests below the fence in Laramie, Wyo., on Oct. 9, 1999, where a year earlier, University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard was tied and pistol whipped into a coma. He later died. The murder of Shepard was a watershed moment for gay rights and LGBTQ+ acceptance in the U.S. (AP Photo/Ed Andrieski, File)
FILE - Demonstrators James Jenner, of Boston, left, and James Murphy, of Cambridge, Mass., center, chant slogans while showing their support for same-sex marriage in front of the Statehouse, in Boston, Thursday, March 11, 2004. Several thousand people on both sides of the same-sex marriage debate gathered in front of the Statehouse Thursday as state legislators debate a constitutional ban on gay marriage. (AP Photo/Steven Senne, File)
FILE - Demonstrators James Jenner, of Boston, left, and James Murphy, of Cambridge, Mass., center, chant slogans while showing their support for same-sex marriage in front of the Statehouse, in Boston, Thursday, March 11, 2004. Several thousand people on both sides of the same-sex marriage debate gathered in front of the Statehouse Thursday as state legislators debate a constitutional ban on gay marriage. (AP Photo/Steven Senne, File)
FILE - A window display at a wedding shop, in Provincetown, Mass., Saturday, May 15, 2004, features figurines of the same sex paired together on a wedding cake on the weekend before gay marriage becomes legal in Massachusetts. Provincetown, long considered a destination for gay and lesbian couples to vacation and relax, is expected to soon become a location where they may marry as well. (AP Photo/Julia Cumes, File)
FILE - A window display at a wedding shop, in Provincetown, Mass., Saturday, May 15, 2004, features figurines of the same sex paired together on a wedding cake on the weekend before gay marriage becomes legal in Massachusetts. Provincetown, long considered a destination for gay and lesbian couples to vacation and relax, is expected to soon become a location where they may marry as well. (AP Photo/Julia Cumes, File)
FILE - Hillary, right, and Julie Goodridge, left, lead plaintiffs in the Massachusetts gay marriage lawsuit, raise their right hands and affirm that everything on their marriage license is correct while at Boston City Hall in Boston, Monday May 17, 2004. The couple, who are getting married later Monday, are getting their marriage license. With back to camera is Boston registrar Judith McCarthy. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa, File)
FILE - Hillary, right, and Julie Goodridge, left, lead plaintiffs in the Massachusetts gay marriage lawsuit, raise their right hands and affirm that everything on their marriage license is correct while at Boston City Hall in Boston, Monday May 17, 2004. The couple, who are getting married later Monday, are getting their marriage license. With back to camera is Boston registrar Judith McCarthy. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa, File)
FILE - President Barack Obama, reacts with the mother of Matthew Shepard, Judy Shepard, second left, and James Byrd Jr.'s sisters, Louvon Harris, left, and Betty Byrd Boatner, second right, during a White House reception commemorating the enactment of the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2009, in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)
FILE - President Barack Obama, reacts with the mother of Matthew Shepard, Judy Shepard, second left, and James Byrd Jr.'s sisters, Louvon Harris, left, and Betty Byrd Boatner, second right, during a White House reception commemorating the enactment of the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2009, in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)
FILE - From left, Petty Officer Autumn Sandeen, Lt. Dan Choi, Cpl. Evelyn Thomas and Capt. Jim Pietrangelo II, stand outside the White House on Tuesday, April 16, 2010, after they handcuffed themselves to the fence during a protest for gay rights in Washington, demanding that President Obama keep his promise to repeal “don’t ask, don’t tell.” On Sept. 20, 2011, the repeal of U.S. military’s 18-year-old compromise policy took effect, allowing gay and lesbian service members to serve openly. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File)
FILE - From left, Petty Officer Autumn Sandeen, Lt. Dan Choi, Cpl. Evelyn Thomas and Capt. Jim Pietrangelo II, stand outside the White House on Tuesday, April 16, 2010, after they handcuffed themselves to the fence during a protest for gay rights in Washington, demanding that President Obama keep his promise to repeal “don’t ask, don’t tell.” On Sept. 20, 2011, the repeal of U.S. military’s 18-year-old compromise policy took effect, allowing gay and lesbian service members to serve openly. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File)
FILE - Revelers celebrate in front of the Stonewall Inn in Manhattan’s west village following the passing of the same sex marriage bill by a vote of 33 to 29, Friday, June 24, 2011, in New York. Same-sex marriage is now legal in New York after Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed a bill that was narrowly passed by state lawmakers Friday, handing activists a breakthrough victory in the state where the gay rights movement was born. The gay rights movement is considered to have started with the Stonewall riots in New York City’s Greenwich Village in 1969. (AP Photo/Louis Lanzano, File)
FILE - Revelers celebrate in front of the Stonewall Inn in Manhattan’s west village following the passing of the same sex marriage bill by a vote of 33 to 29, Friday, June 24, 2011, in New York. Same-sex marriage is now legal in New York after Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed a bill that was narrowly passed by state lawmakers Friday, handing activists a breakthrough victory in the state where the gay rights movement was born. The gay rights movement is considered to have started with the Stonewall riots in New York City’s Greenwich Village in 1969. (AP Photo/Louis Lanzano, File)
FILE - Sgt. Brandon Morgan, right, kisses his partner, Dalan Wells, in a helicopter hangar at the Marine base in Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii upon returning from a six-month deployment to Afghanistan on Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2012. The photo, made some five months after the repeal of the military’s “don’t ask don’t tell” policy prohibiting gay servicemen from openly acknowledging their sexuality, was among the first showing a gay active duty serviceman in uniform kissing his partner at a homecoming. (AP Photo/David Lewis, File)
FILE - Sgt. Brandon Morgan, right, kisses his partner, Dalan Wells, in a helicopter hangar at the Marine base in Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii upon returning from a six-month deployment to Afghanistan on Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2012. The photo, made some five months after the repeal of the military’s “don’t ask don’t tell” policy prohibiting gay servicemen from openly acknowledging their sexuality, was among the first showing a gay active duty serviceman in uniform kissing his partner at a homecoming. (AP Photo/David Lewis, File)
FILE - Seth Keel, center, is consoled by his boyfriend, Ian Chambers, left, and his mother Jill Hinton, during a concession speech at an Amendment One opposition party in downtown Raleigh, N.C., on Tuesday, May 8, 2012. North Carolina voters approved the constitutional amendment Tuesday defining marriage solely as a union between a man and a woman, becoming the latest state to effectively stop same-sex marriages. (Travis Long/The News & Observer via AP, File)
FILE - Seth Keel, center, is consoled by his boyfriend, Ian Chambers, left, and his mother Jill Hinton, during a concession speech at an Amendment One opposition party in downtown Raleigh, N.C., on Tuesday, May 8, 2012. North Carolina voters approved the constitutional amendment Tuesday defining marriage solely as a union between a man and a woman, becoming the latest state to effectively stop same-sex marriages. (Travis Long/The News & Observer via AP, File)
FILE - John Lewis, left, and Stuart Gaffney embrace outside San Francisco’s City Hall shortly before the U.S. Supreme Court ruling cleared the way for same-sex marriage in California on Wednesday, June 26, 2013. The justices issued two 5-4 rulings in their final session of the term. One decision wiped away part of a federal anti-gay marriage law that has kept legally married same-sex couples from receiving tax, health and pension benefits. The other was a technical legal ruling that said nothing at all about same-sex marriage, but left in place a trial court’s declaration that California’s Proposition 8 is unconstitutional. (AP Photo/Noah Berger, File)
FILE - John Lewis, left, and Stuart Gaffney embrace outside San Francisco’s City Hall shortly before the U.S. Supreme Court ruling cleared the way for same-sex marriage in California on Wednesday, June 26, 2013. The justices issued two 5-4 rulings in their final session of the term. One decision wiped away part of a federal anti-gay marriage law that has kept legally married same-sex couples from receiving tax, health and pension benefits. The other was a technical legal ruling that said nothing at all about same-sex marriage, but left in place a trial court’s declaration that California’s Proposition 8 is unconstitutional. (AP Photo/Noah Berger, File)
FILE - A crowd celebrates outside of the Supreme Court in Washington after the court declared that same-sex couples have a right to marry anywhere in the U.S., on Friday, June 26, 2015. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)
FILE - A crowd celebrates outside of the Supreme Court in Washington after the court declared that same-sex couples have a right to marry anywhere in the U.S., on Friday, June 26, 2015. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)
FILE - In this Friday, June 26, 2015 file photo, people gather in Lafayette Park to see the White House illuminated with rainbow colors in commemoration of the Supreme Court’s ruling to legalize same-sex marriage in Washington. President Barack Obama, who was inside, said a few days later, “To see people gathered in the evening outside on a beautiful summer night, and to feel whole and to feel accepted, and to feel that they had a right to love _ that was pretty cool.” (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File)
FILE - In this Friday, June 26, 2015 file photo, people gather in Lafayette Park to see the White House illuminated with rainbow colors in commemoration of the Supreme Court’s ruling to legalize same-sex marriage in Washington. President Barack Obama, who was inside, said a few days later, “To see people gathered in the evening outside on a beautiful summer night, and to feel whole and to feel accepted, and to feel that they had a right to love _ that was pretty cool.” (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File)
FILE - Jose Hernandez, center, joins hands with Victor Baez, right, as they mourn the loss of their friends Amanda Alvear and Mercedez Flores who were killed in the mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub, as they visit a makeshift memorial, Monday, June 13, 2016, in Orlando, Fla. (AP Photo/David Goldman, File)
FILE - Jose Hernandez, center, joins hands with Victor Baez, right, as they mourn the loss of their friends Amanda Alvear and Mercedez Flores who were killed in the mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub, as they visit a makeshift memorial, Monday, June 13, 2016, in Orlando, Fla. (AP Photo/David Goldman, File)
FILE - Crowd members hold up candles during a vigil downtown for the victims of a mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub Monday, June 13, 2016, in Orlando, Fla. (AP Photo/David Goldman, File)
FILE - Crowd members hold up candles during a vigil downtown for the victims of a mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub Monday, June 13, 2016, in Orlando, Fla. (AP Photo/David Goldman, File)
FILE - John Erler protests as the Senate State Affairs Committee begin hearings about Senate Bill 6 at the Texas Capitol, Tuesday, March 7, 2017, in Austin, Texas. The the transgender “bathroom bill” would require people to use public bathrooms and restrooms that correspond with the sex on their birth certificate. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)
FILE - John Erler protests as the Senate State Affairs Committee begin hearings about Senate Bill 6 at the Texas Capitol, Tuesday, March 7, 2017, in Austin, Texas. The the transgender “bathroom bill” would require people to use public bathrooms and restrooms that correspond with the sex on their birth certificate. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)
FILE - A supporter, left, of Georgia’s gender-diverse community, speaks to a counter-protester as he speaks to protest against the gender-diverse community during a march for transgender rights through the city’s Midtown district in Atlanta on Saturday, Oct. 12, 2019. The march was part of the annual Gay Pride Festival. (AP Photo/Robin Rayne, File)
FILE - A supporter, left, of Georgia’s gender-diverse community, speaks to a counter-protester as he speaks to protest against the gender-diverse community during a march for transgender rights through the city’s Midtown district in Atlanta on Saturday, Oct. 12, 2019. The march was part of the annual Gay Pride Festival. (AP Photo/Robin Rayne, File)
FILE - Protester hold signs as University of Pennsylvania transgender athlete Lia Thomas competes in the 200 freestyle finals at the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships Friday, March 18, 2022, at Georgia Tech in Atlanta. Thomas finished tied for fifth place. (AP Photo/John Bazemore, File)
FILE - Protester hold signs as University of Pennsylvania transgender athlete Lia Thomas competes in the 200 freestyle finals at the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships Friday, March 18, 2022, at Georgia Tech in Atlanta. Thomas finished tied for fifth place. (AP Photo/John Bazemore, File)
FILE - Disney cast member Nicholas Maldonado protests his company’s stance on LGBTQ issues, while participating in an employee walkout at Walt Disney World, Tuesday, March 22, 2022, in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack, File)
FILE - Disney cast member Nicholas Maldonado protests his company’s stance on LGBTQ issues, while participating in an employee walkout at Walt Disney World, Tuesday, March 22, 2022, in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack, File)
FILE - Attendees congregate at a rally against gender affirming care at War Memorial Plaza in Nashville, Tenn., Friday, Oct. 21, 2022. Top Tennessee Republicans on Friday vowed to push for some of the strictest anti-transgender policies in the United States at a rally Friday, where hundreds of people cheered in support as LGBTQ rights activists yelled back in protest. (Nicole Hester/The Tennessean via AP, File)
FILE - Attendees congregate at a rally against gender affirming care at War Memorial Plaza in Nashville, Tenn., Friday, Oct. 21, 2022. Top Tennessee Republicans on Friday vowed to push for some of the strictest anti-transgender policies in the United States at a rally Friday, where hundreds of people cheered in support as LGBTQ rights activists yelled back in protest. (Nicole Hester/The Tennessean via AP, File)
FILE - Tyrice Kelley, center right, a performer at Club Q, is comforted during a service held at All Souls Unitarian Church following an overnight fatal shooting at the gay nightclub, in Colorado Springs, Colo., on Sunday, Nov. 20, 2022. (Parker Seibold/The Gazette via AP, File)
FILE - Tyrice Kelley, center right, a performer at Club Q, is comforted during a service held at All Souls Unitarian Church following an overnight fatal shooting at the gay nightclub, in Colorado Springs, Colo., on Sunday, Nov. 20, 2022. (Parker Seibold/The Gazette via AP, File)
FILE - Noah Reich, left, and David Maldonado, the Los Angeles co-founders of Classroom of Compassion, put up a memorial with photographs of the five victims of a weekend mass shooting at a nearby gay nightclub on Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2022, in Colorado Springs, Colo. Anderson Lee Aldrich opened fire at Club Q, in which five people were killed and others suffered gunshot wounds before patrons tackled and beat the suspect into submission. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, File)
FILE - Noah Reich, left, and David Maldonado, the Los Angeles co-founders of Classroom of Compassion, put up a memorial with photographs of the five victims of a weekend mass shooting at a nearby gay nightclub on Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2022, in Colorado Springs, Colo. Anderson Lee Aldrich opened fire at Club Q, in which five people were killed and others suffered gunshot wounds before patrons tackled and beat the suspect into submission. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, File)
FILE - Christine Cox, center, a parent of a transgender teenager, becomes emotional after speaking to state Sen. Carden Summers, R-Cordele, rear left, outside the Senate at the Capitol in Atlanta on Monday, March 20, 2023. Activists appeared at the Capitol to protest SB 140, a bill sponsored by Summers that would prevent medical professionals from giving transgender children certain hormones or surgical treatment. (Arvin Temkar/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, File)
FILE - Christine Cox, center, a parent of a transgender teenager, becomes emotional after speaking to state Sen. Carden Summers, R-Cordele, rear left, outside the Senate at the Capitol in Atlanta on Monday, March 20, 2023. Activists appeared at the Capitol to protest SB 140, a bill sponsored by Summers that would prevent medical professionals from giving transgender children certain hormones or surgical treatment. (Arvin Temkar/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, File)
FILE - Participants hold a large transgender flag during the 31st annual Queens Pride Parade and Multicultural Festival, Sunday, June. 4, 2023, in New York. Transgender and nonbinary people are front and center this year at Pride festivals where they’ve often been sidelined. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura, File)
FILE - Participants hold a large transgender flag during the 31st annual Queens Pride Parade and Multicultural Festival, Sunday, June. 4, 2023, in New York. Transgender and nonbinary people are front and center this year at Pride festivals where they’ve often been sidelined. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura, File)
It’s been 25 years since Matthew Shepard, a gay 21-year-old University of Wyoming student, died six days after he was savagely beaten by two young men and tied to a remote fence to meet his fate. His death has been memorialized as an egregious hate crime that helped fuel the LGBTQ+ rights movement over the ensuing years.
From the perspective of the movement’s activists — some of them on the front lines since the 1960s — progress was often agonizingly slow, but it was steady.
Vermont allowed same-sex civil unions in 2000. A Texas law criminalizing consensual gay sex was struck down in 2003. In 2011, the military scrapped the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy that kept gay, lesbian and bisexual service members in the closet. And in 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that same-sex marriages were legal nationwide.
But any perception back then that the long struggle for equality had been won has been belied by events over the past two years.
Five people were killed last year in a mass shooting at an LGBTQ+ nightclub in Colorado. More than 20 Republican-controlled states have enacted an array of anti-LGBTQ+ laws including bans on sports participation and certain medical care for young transgender people, as well as restrictions on how schools can broach LGBTQ+-related topics.
“Undoubtedly we’ve made huge progress, but it’s all at risk,” said Kevin Jennings, the CEO of Lambda Legal, which has been litigating against some of the new anti-LGBTQ+ laws. “Anybody who thinks that once you’ve won rights they’re safe doesn’t understand history. The opponents of equality never give up. They’re like the Terminator — they’re not going to stop coming until they take away your rights.”
Some of the new laws are directed broadly at the entire LGBTQ+ community, such as Florida’s so-called “Don’t Say Gay” law, which imposes bans and restrictions on lessons in public schools about sexual orientation and gender identity. But in many of the GOP-governed states — including Florida — the prime target of legislation has been transgender people.
In addition to measures addressing medical treatments and sports participation, some laws restrict using the pronouns trans students use in classrooms.
“What we’ve said in Florida is we are going to remain a refuge of sanity and a citadel of normalcy,” said Gov. Ron DeSantis as he signed such bills earlier this year. “We’re not doing the pronoun Olympics in Florida.”
Shannon Minter, a transgender civil rights lawyer with the National Center for Lesbian Rights, depicted the wave of anti-trans bills — in some cases leading to legal harassment of trans people — as the one of the gravest threats to the LGBTQ+ community in his 30 years of activism.
“We are in danger now, given the ferocity of this backlash,” he said. “If we don’t stop this with sufficient urgency, we’ll end up with half the country living with very significant bias and lack of legal protection.”
Rodrigo Heng-Lehtinen, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, depicted the legislative attacks as “the backlash to our progress.”
“We made so much progress as an LGBTQ movement, at a fast pace compared to other social justice movements,” he said. “You do have a minority who is overwhelmingly upset by it. They are fired up and they are well-resourced.”
Heng-Lehtinen is optimistic for the long term but said that right now, “trans people across the country are really struggling with feeling any kind of hope.”
The key to changing the current dynamic is for more people in GOP-governed states to get to know and understand trans people, said James Esseks, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s LGBTQ & HIV Project.
“But the efforts of the other side are designed to stop that from happening,” Esseks said. “They want trans people to disappear — no health care, can’t use public restrooms, can’t have a government ID consistent with who you are, and the schools can’t teach about the existence of trans people.”
Esseks reflected back to the Supreme Court’s historic same-sex marriage ruling in 2015. At the time, he said, many activists were thinking elatedly, “OK, we’re kind of done.”
“But the other side pivoted to attacking trans people and seeking religious exemptions to get a right to discriminate against gay people,” he said. “Both of those strategies, unfortunately, have been quite successful.”
President Joe Biden marked the anniversary of Shepard’s death with a call for Congress to enact the Equality Act, which would extend federal civil rights protections to LGBTQ+ Americans.
“Today, as threats and violence targeting the LGBTQI+ community continue to rise, our work is far from finished,” Biden said. “No American should face hate or violence for who they are or who they love.”
Several activists interviewed this week by The Associated Press evoked Matthew Shepard as they discussed broader developments. His memory lives on in many manifestations, including:
— The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, signed by then-President Barack Obama in 2009. The act expanded the federal hate crime law to include crimes based on a victim’s sexual orientation, gender identity or disability.
— “The Laramie Project,” a play based on more than 200 interviews with residents of Laramie, Wyoming, connected to Shepard and his murder. It is a popular choice for high school theater productions but has faced opposition due to policies resembling Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law that have surfaced in various states and communities.
— The Matthew Shepard Foundation, a nonprofit co-founded by Shepard’s mother, Judy. Its self-described mission: “To inspire individuals, organizations, and communities to embrace the dignity and equality of all people ... and address hate that lives within our schools, neighborhoods, and homes.”
“Matthew Shepard’s death was a life-altering moment for a lot of people,” said Shelby Chestnut, executive director of the Transgender Law Center.
Earlier in his career, Chestnut worked with the New York City Anti-Violence Project, an experience that influences his worries about the recent anti-trans bills.
“When you create conditions where people have lack of access to jobs, to health care, they’re more likely to be victims of violence,” he said.
The communications director of the National LGBTQ Task Force, Cathy Renna, was in the early stages of her LGBTQ+ activism when she became involved in media coverage of Shepard’s murder in 1998.
“It shapes the way you do your advocacy for the rest of your life,” she said. “It got many people involved. It was a lightbulb — realizing that hate crimes are a thing that happens.”