New book claims Matthew Shephard was killed by his bisexual lover and drug dealer. Riiiight.

For an "award-winning journalist", it sure isn't that easy to find a lot of information on him.

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Updated On: 9/12/13 at 05:43 PM

The Latamie Project: 10 Years Later does a great job of illuminating and dismantling this folklore.

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Right? I guess some people who feel the need to blame Shepherd for what happened will be excited, though, because if he had a drug dealer AND a bisexual lover, he clearly got what was coming to him.

Updated On: 9/12/13 at 06:49 PM

This guy is just recycling the same stuff John Stossel and Elizabeth Vargas claimed to have "uncovered" on ABC's 20/20 in 2004.

It's junk.




ABC plans to 'debunk' Matthew Shephard killing

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Updated On: 9/12/13 at 08:40 PM

Drug user or not-no one deserves to die that way.

People love making a fast buck inventing things. Even if you are selling lies and rumors, you still get a book deal. It's a sad shame.

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Thankfully, as far as I can tell no one is saying Shepard deserved to die because of drug use.

However if meth use was part of the murderer's history, that could explain the savagery of the killing.

Meth is ravaging our community. When AIDS hit, we had the honesty and courage to say unprotected, promiscuous sex could lead you to contracting hiv. It wasn't easy being honest with ourselves. It wasn't easy getting judged for our collective behavior. But we owned up to our out of control sexing, learned to accept ourselves that much more, and saved lives.

How meth is directly and indirectly killing our community is a life and death conversation. If meth abuse is part of the Shepard story, it needs to be discussed.


No shame.

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Updated On: 9/13/13 at 05:20 PM

Sadly, that is very very true, Best12.

I suspect you and I are in the same approximate age group. When AIDS hit in the 80's I remember an intense feeling of pride that the Gay and Lesbian community was stepping up to the plate and taking care of our own. Education, visibility, free testing, counseling... we were united. From the horrors of AIDS came a stronger, more compassionate and mature community. But it didn't last long.

Today is exactly as you described. But I'd add to your list the increase influence of meth. Meth use is gasoline on the fire of already careless and self-descriptive sexual behavior. People using don't care if they get infected because their brains are sapped of the ability to care for themselves and others. Meth leads you to a very very very dark place.

If the this new light on the Shepard story can do any good, it can raise awareness of the tragedy of meth use in the gay community. Just as it once raised the awareness of the horrors of violence towards the gay community.

But for this to happen, we need the self-honesty and courage we showed during the 80s. Even if that means re-examining the stories that define our culture.

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Updated On: 9/13/13 at 06:18 PM

I was living in Denver at the time this happened. Sheppard, of course, had a connection with CO. He also had a lot of friends there and I knew some of them. They would have known if something like this was going on and I am sure it wasn't the case based on conversations I had with them.

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I would like to reexamine the story that gay men didn't love themselves or each other enough, also known as The Larry Kramer Narrative, or going along with a concept like "owning up to our out of control sexing."

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