Remembering Matthew Shepard on the 25th Anniversary of His Death

As the 25th anniversary of the death of Matthew Shepard hits on Thursday, October 12, the state of Iowa continues to oppress its young LGBTQ+ population and Waukee remembers the events of that tragic night.

On October 7, 1998, two men, Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson, abducted Shepard from his home at the University of Wyoming, tied him to a fence post along a road just east of Laramie, WY and assaulted him with the butt of a pistol. The pair left Shepard to die in the bitter October cold. About 18 hours later, a passing cyclist noticed Shepard after mistaking him for a scarecrow and brought him to a local hospital. Shepard passed away just after midnight on October 12 due to his injuries.

The death of Matthew Shepard provoked uproar from the LGBTQ+ community and quickly became one of the most notorious anti-gay hate crimes in American history. The name of Shepard, however, quickly left the lips of protesters and quietly slipped away into the noise of the 21st century. 

Over the past couple of years, Waukee has brought back Shepard’s name through various pieces of work based on his story.

In 2022, Northwest Singers, Northwest’s varsity choir, performed a piece titled ‘The Innocence’ from the oratorio ‘Considering Matthew Shepard’. This piece was included as a part of the choir department’s winter concert, Winter With Northwest.

“We use art as a way of processing emotion and grasping with the struggles of our world. We can find profound clarity as well as share a message that has a social impact,” Choir Director Mr. Jack Daubitz explained. The choir sang this piece while surrounding the audience and holding hands. This encouraged unity and emotion from the choir.

“My hope is always to give power to the voices that need it and programming “The Innocence” as well as “All of Us” the year before is just a small gesture that I hope has a ripple effect beyond our classroom,” Daubitz continued.

Waukee High School Theatre Arts also produced “The Laramie Project,” which illustrates the story of the town of Laramie before and after Shepard’s death. The piece was presented in October 2018 to honor the 20th anniversary of Shepard’s passing. The next week, Waukee High School also produced a staged reading of “The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later” that showcases what happened to the town ten years after making history. This helped to further evaluate where America is 10 years after the ‘10 years later’. 

“Are we better? How does time numb us to tragedy? Why is it important for us to remember events like this? Do we see similarities in our world today?” Mr. Nathan Jorgensen, the play’s director asked.

In many ways, the community of Laramie closely resembles the community of Waukee, in that it is a somewhat large but tight-knit community, among other things. After each performance, members of the Cast and Crew engaged in a talkback with audience members.

“These talkbacks were a great way to debrief from the show and help the audience process the events of the show. To hold a mirror to themselves and really consider whether events like that could happen in our community,” Mr. Jorgensen continued, “producing “The Laramie Project Cycle” only brought us closer together as a district and community. Ask anyone who was a part of the production or anyone who came to see the show, it was extremely well-received. Many students still talk about that experience today.”

Iowa’s state government has, however, moved away from its progression of LGBTQ+ rights. Recently, Iowa implemented Senate File 496, a Republican-backed bill that forces schools to alert parents if a student requests to be called a name or use pronouns not listed on their school forms. This also applies to any student who wishes to use a nickname or use a shorter name (ex. Jennifer to Jen). More information about the new laws is available in this article. 

“It’s important to advocate for queer rights because even as people are more accepting, queer rights are actively being taken away and queer students are being actively targeted,” expressed President of GSA Brett Giltner. This was a focus for GSA during their recent “Pride Outside” event, all made possible by a grant from the It Gets Better Project, a non-profit dedicated to supporting LGBTQ+ youth.

Similarly, Judy and Dennis Shepard, Matthew’s parents, founded The Matthew Shepard Foundation after his death. Since then, the foundation has also worked to erase the hate found in communities around the nation and the world. They helped pass the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act in 2009, which provides hate crime training to officers across the United States.