Twenty-five years have passed since gay 21-year-old college student Matthew Shepard died after being beaten and tied to a remote fence.
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.
“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.” “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.”
“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.” — 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., 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.
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25 years after Matthew Shepard's death, LGBTQ+ activists say equal-rights progress is at riskTwenty-five years have passed since gay 21-year-old college student Matthew Shepard died after being beaten and tied to a remote fence. His death has been memorialized as an egregious hate crime that helped fuel the LGBTQ+ rights movement over the ensuing years.
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25 years after Matthew Shepard's death, LGBTQ+ activists say equal-rights progress is at riskTwenty-five years have passed since gay 21-year-old college student Matthew Shepard died after being beaten and tied to a remote fence
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`The Laramie Project' stages a special reading in Wyoming on the 25th anniversary of Shepard murderIt has been 25 years since the body of Matthew Shepard was discovered in Laramie, Wyoming.
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`The Laramie Project' stages a special reading in Wyoming on the 25th anniversary of Shepard murderIt has been 25 years since the body of Matthew Shepard was discovered in Laramie, Wyoming.
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`The Laramie Project' stages a special reading in Wyoming on the 25th anniversary of Shepard murderIt has been 25 years since the body of Matthew Shepard was discovered in Laramie, Wyoming.
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