On Tuesday, Oct. 3, Pride Alliance of Washington University will welcome Judy Shepard for a speech and presentation at 8 p.m. in Graham Chapel.
Shepard is the mother of Matthew Shepard, a 21-year-old University of Wyoming student who was beaten to death in October 1998 because he was gay.
Her talk, “The Legacy of Matthew Shepard,” is free and open to the public, although priority seating will be given to WUSTL students.
Matthew’s murder resulted in a public outcry that brought hate crimes to the forefront of the national consciousness. Following the tragedy, Judy Shepard, along with her husband, Dennis, created the Matthew Shepard Foundation, which works to create gay and lesbian equality and to produce progressive hate crime legislation.
Shepard will speak about the ways in which individuals can improve safety in communities and schools for all people — regardless of sex, gender, religion, race or sexual orientation.
Shepard has lent her voice to public service announcements for many national human rights organizations, including the Human Rights Campaign and the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network. In 1999, she testified before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee in support of the Hate Crimes Prevention Act. She also is extremely active in Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays and has actively promoted improving school safety for gay students.
For more information about the Matthew Shepard Foundation, go online to matthewshepard.org. For more information on this event, contact Pride Alliance of Washington University.
Pride Alliance is a multi-focus gay, genderqueer, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex (also known as DSD, or disorder of sex differentiation and development), ally and asexual (GLBTQIA) organization open to all WUSTL students — regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression.
Its goals are to advocate GLBTQIA-friendly public policies through activism and by increasing awareness, to educate the University community at large about GLBTQIA issues and to build a supportive social network for GLBTQIA students. Through these objectives, Pride Alliance attempts to make the WUSTL campus an environment open to the needs of GLBTQIA students and that fosters a stimulating and respectful dialogue on GLBTQIA matters.