COVER STORY
Matt’s legacy lives on.
Remembering Matthew Shepard
In honor of their 20 years of work, we spoke with Executive Director Jason Marsden about the legacy of the Matthew Shepard Foundation. By Kaylee Duff Matthew Shepard would have turned 42 years old this December 1st, had he not been attacked and left to die in October 1998 on account of his sexual orientation. This tragedy was turned into a beacon of perseverance, as Matt’s parents used their grief to advocate for a safer and more compassionate world. Since then, the Matthew Shepard Foundation has been serving America’s LGBTQ+ community to push for visibility, inclusivity and safety. They urge the community to honor Matt’s memory by advocating for change in our daily lives, which we can do through embracing diversity and erase hatred. True Q’s editor talked to Jason Marsden, the Executive Director of the Foundation. Jason has been serving in this position for ten years. He was a volunteer since the beginning, and a personal friend of Matt’s.
Kaylee: I figured we could start with a summary about the creation of the Matthew Shepard Foundation, and some of the things you all do. Jason: When Matt was in the hospital, and after he died, thousands of people sent sympathy cards, get-well cards, letters and other messages, as well as over a 100,000 emails — which was extraordinary in that era — to the Shepards, expressing their grief or hope for social change. A lot of people had enclosed donations. No one really had asked them to do that. The Shepards really had to spend some time thinking about what the appropriate use of those funds would be. They felt, because of the extraordinary media coverage, that they had an opportunity to take 10 | DECEMBER 2018
advantage of people’s attention to anti-gay hate crimes and to hatred in general against the LGBT community. So they created the Matthew Shepard Foundation as a vehicle to advance their work. At that time, they thought maybe it would go on for a few years, while there was media and public interest in the case. They focused initially on trying to convince parents to accept and embrace their LGBT kids, and to advocate for LGBT-inclusive hate crime legislation. That work began in the winter after Matt’s death. Unlike a lot of similar organizations that arise out of an individual tragedy, it has continued to hold public interest and they have continued to do that work.
What different types of work does the Foundation do? Our primary work is to raise awareness around hate crimes. All hate crimes — racial, religious, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability. The vast majority of hate crimes are not about sexual orientation. We work on the issue broadly, in coalition with groups that represent other minority identity communities. We try to raise awareness amongst people who may be victimized. We urge victims to report. The majority of victims of hate crimes who are surveyed report that they did not notify the police that they were victimized, for a variety of reasons — mistrust of police, fear of being outed. Not every state or locality has a hate crime law, despite the federal law. That only applies to capital felonies. The vast majority of hate crimes are simple assault, vandalism, burglary, property destruction. There are five states that don’t have hate crime legislation at all. [Editor’s TRUE Q MAGAZINE
