Mission America

Christian Commentary on the Culture

Matthew Shepard Legacy: "Fake News"

Is the accepted legacy of Matthew Shepard “fake news”? 

Recently a radio listener contacted me, concerned about yet another high school performing The Laramie Project, a play/movie depicting the most popular version of the events surrounding the 1998 murder of homosexual HIV-positive Wyoming college student Matthew Shepard. 

This listener was also concerned that Matthew’s mother, Judy, is still speaking to high school groups and conveying a highly misleading message. 

The truth-challenged Laramie play perpetuates “LGBTQ” mythology at numerous schools, and we can expect more before the annual pro-homosexual “Day of Silence,” Friday, April 21. High schools this year presenting this propaganda play are in Lewisville, TX; Kalispell, MT; Minneapolis, MN; Chattanooga, TN; and Canton, GA

Laramie paints Shepard’s murder as an example of violent bigotry. So did prosecutors who maintained Aaron McKinney pistol-whipped Shepard because of “homophobia” after a drug and alcohol binge. Accomplice Russell Henderson was largely a bystander. Both are serving life sentences. 

Media and homosexual activist groups descended on Laramie and, along with intense pressure even from then-president Bill Clinton, spun the murder into a tale of “anti-gay hate“ to advance hate crimes legislation. 

But those looking closely into the Shepard case see a completely different picture. Shepard was a victim, but also a victimizer. Ditto for killer Aaron McKinney. 

Milo Yiannopoulos recently confirmed that many homosexuals are molested as minors. One author maintains that Matthew Shepard as well as his murderer fell into that category. 

Journalist Stephen Jimenez, himself a homosexual, wrote The Book of Matt in 2013 after years of research, concluding that McKinney’s attack most likely arose from rage over an unsuccessful drug deal. 

McKinney, Jimenez believes, planned to steal methamphetamine from Shepard, luring Shepard away from the bar that fateful night to force Shepard to hand over whatever quantity he possessed. McKinney craved another “high” but also needed the drug sales to pay off pressing debts. 

The Book of Matt contends that both Shepard and McKinney were dealing drugs, probably working for Denver-based drug rings. 

Also revealed in Jimenez’ interviews is the likelihood that McKinney and Shepard knew each other socially, possibly even sexually. Both were reportedly present in a limousine during a group sex encounter, according to Doc O’Connor, the driver. 

The Laramie Project refused to research the sordid social circle of Shepard/O’Connor/McKinney. O’Connor was not just a “limo driver,” but a self-confessed “hustler” and former porn movie actor who drove groups to Ft. Collins and Denver bars on drug and alcohol-laden excursions. Both Shepard and McKinney road in his limo. McKinney even lived on Doc’s property for a time. 

Whether Doc himself was a dealer was never confirmed, but many of Jimenez’ sources alluded to O’Connor’s “escort service” where McKinney reportedly had sex with other males for money. Doc called him a “bisexual.” 

Did McKinney’s girlfriend at the time, Kristen Price, know this? Her testimony to police started the “gay panic” defense for McKinney, which she later told Jimenez had been concocted by McKinney and herself before he was apprehended. The defense revealed that McKinney was troubled about being homosexually molested as a youth and had also engaged in homosexual sex with his cousin as a teen, so he was repulsed by an alleged advance made by Shepard, erupting in rage. 

McKinney’s widely-reported sexual activities belie such a defense, however, even if Shepard made unwanted advances, a fact Jimenez came to doubt. 

The Book of Matt is dismissed by the left, but their criticism flags in the face of Jimenez’ painstaking research and courage to tell some inconvenient truths. 

Shepard struggled with alcohol and drugs himself, but was reportedly also dealing. Friends reported he too was heavily in debt, and although an affectionately-remembered friend, was hardly the meek homosexual student portrayed as the victim of redneck “homophobia.” 

Shepard’s and McKinney’s drug involvement was left unexamined during the murder trials. But details on this and their sexual histories began to emerge through research for an ABC 20/20 documentary. 

Shepard was raped in Morocco while on a senior class trip. But prior to that, according to Jimenez, Shepard had been convicted at age 15 of molesting two eight-year-old neighborhood boys in Jasper, Wyoming. The sealed records were unavailable during the trials. 

So Shepard the victim also became a troubled victimizer, selling harmful drugs as well as changing the lives of two boys forever, just as his had changed. Shepard underwent treatment at one point for serious depression. 

Why can’t the truth be told about the damage of homosexual molestation, and the tragedy when teens are barred from counseling for that abuse? Both Shepard and McKinney exhibited profound personal dysfunction, albeit in different ways, that may well have resulted from childhood assault. 

And yet six states and several cities ban counseling for teens with these unwanted attractions, even if they are the product of homosexual molestation.

“The myth of Matthew Shepard has been destroyed, ironically by a homosexual reporter,“ said Peter LaBarbera, president of Americans for Truth. “Tragically, Shepard reportedly himself sexually abused boys when he was a teenager. Of course, don’t expect the media and the ‘LGBTQ’ lobby, who used his death for political gain, to correct the record.” 

Drinking, drugs, sexual depravity, depression, even violence emerge in this story. But the fake news narrative benefits the agenda of the Matthew Shepard Foundation.

What qualifies Matthew’s parents to present “hate crimes” training and lectures to Kentucky law students? They also spoke to 500 public school students in Lexington, KY in 2015. Apparently, they coordinate with the U.S. Department of Justice on hate crimes “training.” 

Their time would more logically be spent uncovering child sex abusers and demanding prosecution for perpetrators along with stronger enforcement of drug laws.

Matthew and Aaron deserved better, but could have behaved better. Sadly, Matt was prevented from the chance to overcome his past. 

The child sexual abuse epidemic, its scars along with the hope of treatment, needs to be unveiled. 

Will homosexual activists be truly compassionate and let the truth be told, for the sake of children?