25 years after his death, Matthew Shepard’s name remains just as resonant within the Laramie community as the day he was murdered.
In 1998, Matt Shepard was abducted from the Fireside Bar and Lounge, now known as The Library, beaten, tied to a fence and left for dead. He was found by a biker after 18 hours, covered in blood and barely clinging to life. 5 days later, on October 12, 1998, Matt Shepard died.
A quarter of a century later, and Matt’s story is just as important as ever.
“The killing of Matt Shepard put Laramie on the map, and not in the way anyone would have wanted. Even now, 25 years later, people know Laramie for the killing of a young gay man that happened here,” said Peter Parolin, Dean of the Honors College and one of the actors in the upcoming stage reading of the Laramie Project.
In honor of the anniversary, University of Wyoming hosted numerous events honoring Matt’s legacy throughout this past week.
Friday, Oct. 5, the Honors college held a showing of the Laramie Project movie. The film, based on the 2000 play of the same name, displays the aftermath of Shepard’s murder, through the eyes of Laramie residents.
On Oct. 8, a memorial for Matt was held at The Library, with a number of speakers sharing their own stories about being queer in Laramie, as well as connecting their experiences to Shepard’s story.
More than 50 people attended the memorial, which began with speeches by Nicholas Jesse, Koraline Wolfgang, Allison Gernant, Aspen Brown, Kai Haukaas, Maia Marces, Artemis Langford, and Nichol Bondurant and ended in a candle-lit moment of silence in Matt’s memory.
“I’m so grateful to be here tonight. I’m honored to speak, celebrate, and more,” said Brown.
ASUW senator and history student Artemis Langford also spoke.
“There were three things I knew about Wyoming before [moving here] as a 15 year old and that was one, my father grew up in Lander. Two, Yellowstone is in the northwest part of the state […] and then three that in a college town called Laramie there was a gay man named Matthew Shepard who was abducted, tortured, and brutally murdered.”
An entire week of events was planned for the week of Oct. 9 in memorial, including the Shepard Symposium for Social Justice and a variety of speakers and events to discuss social justice literacy and host presentations and workshops throughout the day.
The speakers reiterated the importance of Matt Shepard’s life and death can not be overstated.
“It saddens me to think of what humans are capable of at our darkest, but then seeing the people of Laramie push against Matt Shepherd’s killing reminds me that the good in humanity is far stronger than that darkness,” said Mandie Reish, Event Coordinator with the Honors College.
