Gay&Night Januari 2014

It has been fifteen years
since Matthew Shepard,
a 21-year-old boy from
Wyoming, USA, was tortured
to death because he was
gay. After Matthew's death
in ‘98, his parents Judy and
Dennis Shepard became
advocates for the equal
rights movement. Their
organization, the Matthew
Shepard Foundation,
supports diversity and
tolerance in youth
organizations. Fifteen years
after Matthew's death, his
childhood friend Michele
Josue made a documentary
to introduce the world to
the Matthew she knew.
Matt Shepard is a friend of
mine has been featured at
a number of film festivals all
over the world and was the
opening documentary at the
International Documentary
Film Festival Amsterdam
(IDFA) this year. Gay&Night
Magazine spoke to Judy and
Dennis Shepard and director
Michele Josue during their
stay in Amsterdam.
Is watching the
documentary hard for you?
How is it to watch all the
material, such as short
clips and photographs, of
Matthew in general?
Judy: It is difficult, especially because
there’s a lot of information and
material in the documentary that
we’ve never seen before. It has a
good and a bad side. It’s full of good
memories, but it’s also sad.
Dennis: Because you keep wondering:
what if?
What things in the
documentary didn't you
know about?
Judy: Well, it all comes from a
different perspective. But no big
surprises or anything. Just another
perspective.
Did you immediately
say yes to working with
Michelle on the film?
Judy: We made pretty clear to
Michelle that we were on board with
what she wanted to do. We trusted
her completely. We know how much
she cared about Matt and we knew
how much he loved her.
Dennis: We wouldn’t have done
that for anyone else. We knew what
Michelle’s motives were, but we
wouldn’t know that for a stranger. We
knew the purpose behind Michelle’s
film was just telling the story of her
friend and showing the world the guy
she knew.
Recently a book came
out called The Book of
Matt, in which the writer
talks about Matt's alleged
crystal meth addiction.
The writer says Matt's
untimely death was not
caused by homophobia,
but because Matt was a
drug addict with friends
in the underworld. How
does that make you feel?
Are you scared people will
believe this story?
Judy: It’s very frustrating that this
story is still out there. It has been
negotiated many times before, it’s
not new.
Dennis: They investigated the whole
drug-related story, but there were
no drugs involved. Not before, not
during and not after the murder.
Judy: The story has been out there
for a while now. It’s like this game we
play in the States called the telephone
game. You tell someone something
in that person’s ear, they tell it to the
next one and so on and the story is
always completely different in the
end to when the first person told it.
That’s how this story got out. I think
people assumed a lot. McKinney and
Henderson (Matthew’s murderers
- ed.) were in the drug world. And I
think a lot of people assumed that
Matt had something to do with it
as well, even though McKinney and
Henderson said many times that they
never met Matt before that night.
We don’t know that much about the
book, besides from what people have
told us and little snippets. What I do
know is that the interviews are all in
quotes, and the writer often writes
‘this is what I think they really meant
to say’.
Dennis: He makes the facts fit to his
story. He also quotes a man called Ted
Henson, who is supposedly a family
friend, and he claims he has a part of
Matt’s ashes. We have never heard
of this man and he does not have
Matthew’s ashes. This whole story is
like a fairytale to me, it should be up
there with the stories of Anderson
and Grimm.
Judy: They always say: everybody is
entitled to their opinion, but there’s
only one set of facts. Well, he doesn’t
seem to believe in the facts. He’s a
frustrated screenwriter, that’s what I
know.
Dennis: He tried to sell it for a long
time. He tells people it took him ten
years to write it. I think it only took
him ten years, because he wasn’t able
to sell it.
Judy: The whole book is more about
the writer than about Matt. It’s so
frustrating because now people who
are going to research what happened
to Matt will see this as well. It’s just a
bunch of BS!
Dennis: They probably won’t believe
it, hopefully, but it’s something
that’s out there and is not true.
He even used the title The Book of
Matt to make people believe it’s this
feel-good story about Matt. He also
stole the title from Judy’s book The
Meaning Of Matthew.
Judy: He even tried to use the exact
same picture I used as the cover of my
book. Thankfully, the photographer
didn’t let him. That says something
about the writer, doesn’t it?
How far have the United
States come in the battle
for equality?
Judy: Well we now have marriage
equality in 16 states. There’s federal
hate crime legislation, named after
Matt. Don’t Ask Don’t Tell got
repealed and parts of DOMA, the
Defense of Marriage Act or as I like
to call it Denial Of Marriage Act, are
gone now too. Social acceptance is
way up, it’s not wonderful yet but it’s
getting there. Pop culture has a huge
influence on social acceptance. There’s
still a lot that needs to be done. One
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