Considering Matthew Shepard

I spent some time last evening watching Craig Hella Johnson's widely acclaimed oratorio, "Considering Matthew Shepard," composed to commemorate during 2018 the 20th anniversary of young Mr. Shepard's torture and death.

Matt, then age 21, was abducted, beaten, tortured and left to die tied to a fence post above Laramie, Wyoming, 24 years ago last night, Oct. 6, 1998. He was found, still breathing but with fatal brain injuries 18 hours later and died on Oct. 12 after life support devices were removed.

Had the young man lived, he would turn 46 this December. That seems hardly possible.

Mr. Shepard's death received attention worldwide and generally is counted among the turning points in efforts toward full inclusion in the United States and elsewhere for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people.

But the dominance of the new right within the Republican party and among allied American Christians seems now to endanger those gains and perhaps put others on hold. 

And those of us who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer, certainly can see how easily this new round of demonization could lead to the same sort of violence that took Matthew Shepard's life.

So his story remains cautionary and needs to be repeated --- again and again.