In what The Center on Halsted described as her first official visit to the facility, acclaimed LGBTQ advocate, mom, author and Matthew Shepard Foundation co-founder Judy Shepard chatted with members of the Chicago LGBTQ community at an informal reception Aug. 26.
"This is an incredible place and a credit to the community," Shepard said of the Center. "I wish every city had one. In fact, I wish every city had more than one!"
Since the 1998 murder of her son Matthew, Shepard has been an adamant and tireless champion of LGBTQ equality. She has travelled throughout the world sharing Matthew's life and drawing upon the inspiration he bequeathed to his parents of one day seeing a society where the attitudes and malice that led to his death are eradicated.
According to its website, the foundation she created alongside her husband, Dennis, has focused on replacing "hate with understanding, compassion and acceptance." Alongside Shepard's appearances, the foundation has supported arts organizations and schools in their productions of the Moisés Kaufman play The Laramie Project, about the aftermath of Matthew's death. In 2007, it launched the groundbreaking Matthew's Place website for LGBTQ youthparticularly in isolated areasto connect, blog and find resources to combat bullying and family or religious alienation.
In their push for full LGBTQ equality, Shepard and the foundation have worked with community leaders, organizations and legislators. In 2009, Shepard finally saw the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act signed into law. That same year she published "The Meaning of Matthew: My Son's Murder in Laramie, and a Word Transformed" in which she candidly discussed the impact of his life, the moment that turned her world upside down and the years which galvanized and helped transform the LGBTQ community.
Looking towards the future, Shepard sees a long and challenging road ahead in confronting the systematic victimization, assault and murder of members of the LGBTQ community particularly trans* women of color, the brutal slaughters of whom often remain unsolved.
"When I first got into this, I thought marriage [equality] would be the last and final step and everything else would be taken care of," Shepard told Windy City Times. "We know that statistically every time something positive happens for the LGBTQ community hate crimes go up. I don't think people consider it news anymore and a lot of crimes go underreported because people don't want to be re-victimized or they live in a state that doesn't have non-discrimination or hate crime laws. The country at large just isn't working with us in this area and I don't know how to get them to do that."
Shepard said she believes some of those answers can be found within the LGBTQ community itself. "We've got to stop fighting with each other," she said. "It's going to take all of us to fix it. Let's start working together on policy and stop arguing about who's going to take credit for what and let's just get the damned thing done."
She added that she wants to see an end to advocacy groups and nonprofits overly concerned about donor dollars: "They're all coming at it from a different direction, so let's work together and stop having splintered groups who say, 'You're doing this wrong or your concentrating on the wrong thing.' Who cares who gets it done? Let's just get it done."
Shepard's own experiences as a parent who has lost a son through violence and her success advocating for the passage of the Matthew Shepard Act have taught her a few lessons when it comes to ensuring both legislative and societal progress. "We have to engage allies," she said. "We have to talk to family, friends, people we work with, even strangers on the street and tell them our stories, so we can get them to become as active and concerned about these issues as we are."
Robin Wood, the deputy director of the Matthew Shepard Foundation, said, "Matt's life motivated the people who knew him to make a difference. He never understood people's impulse to be nasty or hateful and his vision he had for the world drives everything we do."
That drive has led to a new program focused on hate-crime reporting and statistics throughout the country. "Of the approximately 18,000 jurisdictions in the country only about 12,000 actively participate in the FBI's Unified Crime Reporting Survey," Wood said. "So one of the things we're looking at is how the foundation can leverage our relationships with different communities and build new relationships to put pressure on law enforcement and local and state governments to require that their jurisdictions participate in hate-crimes reporting. There are so many major areas with vibrant LGBT communities that are still suffering from violence that is swept under the rug in terms of law enforcement numbers and media coverage. We want to leverage Matt's story to guarantee a safer world for LGBT people."
One of the corporate partners in Shepard's visit to the Center on Hasted event was MillerCoors. Douglas Sanborn is the manager of community commerce partnerships with the company and is also a board member of the Matthew Shepard Foundation. "The foundation is all about erasing hate," he told Windy City Times. "Hate is a learned substance. So, for example with the trans* community, the more we engage and include and work together, the further our message against hate will reach."
In the 16 years since her son became a casualty of hatred, Shepard has already seen the reach of Matthew's life's story lead to the realization of some of his fondest dreams.
"Matt wanted to change the world," Shepard said. "He never in his life imagined that we would come this far in the LGBT movement in the United States. Matt was a political junkie and I think he would be most proud that we had the foresight to elect a president who knew what this was abouta social justice and a civil rights issuerather than someone who would push us aside and say that we don't really count."