Tectonic Theater Project
On 6 October 1998 Matthew Shepard was beaten and left to die tied to a fence in the outskirts of Laramie, Wyoming. He died 6 days later. His torture and murder became a watershed historical moment in America that highlighted many of the fault lines in our culture.
A month after the murder the members of Tectonic Theater Project traveled to Laramie and conducted interviews with the people of the town. From these interviews they wrote the play "The Laramie Project". The piece has been seen by more than 30 million people around the country.
Judy Shepard
In May 2009, Shepard met with President Barack Obama, where he promised her he would help pass the Matthew Shepard Act. There was a controversy when the act was being debated in the House of Representatives, and while Judy Shepard was in the audience, Representative Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., called the allegation that the murder of Matthew Shepard was because of his homosexuality a hoax; later she apologized for this statement.