Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Matthew Shepard to Be Interred at National Cathedral

NATIONAL CATHEDRAL Matthew Shepard will find his resting place at the Washington National Cathedral 20 years after he was targeted and killed for his sexual orientation. Shepard’s parents were initially reluctant to bury their son in 1998 following his murder, fearing potential vandalism at his grave, but have decided to inter his ashes at the cathedral Oct. 26 because of the importance of the Episcopal Church in Shepard’s life.
NATIONAL CATHEDRAL Matthew Shepard will find his resting place at the Washington National Cathedral 20 years after he was targeted and killed for his sexual orientation. Shepard’s parents were initially reluctant to bury their son in 1998 following his murder, fearing potential vandalism at his grave, but have decided to inter his ashes at the cathedral Oct. 26 because of the importance of the Episcopal Church in Shepard’s life.

The ashes of Matthew Shepard will be interred at the Washington National Cathedral on Friday, Oct. 26, 20 years after his murder in a homophobic hate crime.

When he was 21 years old, Shepard was killed in a hate crime that drew nationwide attention in 1998. Shepard’s parents cremated him and have held onto the ashes for the past two decades out of fear of attracting vandalism to his final resting place, according to The Washington Post.

NATIONAL CATHEDRAL Matthew Shepard will find his resting place at the Washington National Cathedral 20 years after he was targeted and killed for his sexual orientation. Shepard’s parents were initially reluctant to bury their son in 1998 following his murder, fearing potential vandalism at his grave, but have decided to inter his ashes at the cathedral Oct. 26 because of the importance of the Episcopal Church in Shepard’s life.

Shepard’s parents chose the Washington National Cathedral, a cathedral of the Episcopal Church, for the role of its community in Shepard’s life, his mother Judy Shepard said.

“We’ve given much thought to Matt’s final resting place, and we found [that] the Washington National Cathedral is an ideal choice, as Matt loved the Episcopal church and felt welcomed by his church in Wyoming,” Judy Shepard said in the Matthew Shepard Foundation’s Oct. 11 news release.

Shepard, who will be interred following a public service celebrating his life, will be one of more than about 220 people whose remains have been interred at the Washington National Cathedral in the last century, according to the Oct. 11 news release. People previously interred at the cathedral include President Woodrow Wilson; Bishop Thomas Claggett, the first Episcopal bishop ordained in the United States; Helen Keller; Keller’s teacher Anne Sullivan; and U.S. Navy Admiral George Dewey.

On Oct. 6, 1998, 21-year-old Shepard, an openly gay student at the University of Wyoming, left a local bar in Laramie, Wyo., with two young men, Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson, according to the Wyoming State Historical Society. McKinney and Henderson drove Shepard to an isolated area east of Laramie, where the two assaulted him with a pistol and left the unconscious victim tied to a fence after stealing his wallet and identification.

Shepard was found almost 18 hours later by a cyclist who initially mistook him for a scarecrow. Although Shepard was rushed to a hospital in Fort Collins, Colo., the damage to his brain stem was severe, and he remained in a coma for five days before dying Oct. 12.

Shepard’s assault became one of the most well-known anti-gay hate crimes in U.S. history, drawing attention to the need for federal hate crime legislation, evident by the passing of the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act in 2009.

The Washington National Cathedral has been a longtime supporter of LGBTQ rights and considers LGBTQ equality the “great civil rights issue of church in the 21st century,” according to the cathedral’s website.

Shepard’s upcoming interment functions as a reminder of the need for acceptance of LGBTQ individuals, Rev. Randolph Marshall Hollerith, dean of Washington National Cathedral, said in the Oct. 11 news release.

“Matthew Shepard’s death is an enduring tragedy affecting all people and should serve as an ongoing call to the nation to reject anti-LGBTQ bigotry and instead embrace each of our neighbors for who they are,” Hollerith said.

Rev. Becky Zartman, episcopal missioner to Georgetown University, also advocated the need for further progress in LGBTQ rights.

“I’m sorry that violence against LGTBQ folks was accepted for so long, and that Matthew Shepard was so brutally attacked just for being who God created him to be,” Zartman wrote in an email to The Hoya. “We’ve come a long way in twenty years, but we haven’t come far enough.”

Law enforcement agencies reported 1,218 hate crime offenses motivated by sexual-orientation bias in 2016, 1,218 offenses in 2015 and 1,178 offenses in 2014, according to the FBI hate crime statistics.

Students must be aware of the ongoing presence of anti-gay hate crimes, GU Pride President Jenny Xu (COL ’21) wrote in an email to The Hoya.

“Hate crimes committed on the basis of sexual orientation have not been decreasing,” Xu wrote. “I would even speculate that the official numbers undershoot because not everyone reports due to fear of being outed or shamed.”

Xu emphasized the increased rates of homophobic hate crimes against members of other marginalized communities.

“Furthermore, it’s important to note that trans people, women, and people of color experience sexuality-based hate crimes at disproportionately high rates,” Xu wrote. “Violence against LGBTQ+ people is certainly not a thing of the past; its reduction requires both cultural and institutional support.”

GU Pride is working with students to foster an environment that promotes awareness and acceptance of people with all gender and sexual identities, Xu wrote.

“We create a community on campus for LGBTQ+ people to share their stories and explore the diversity of experiences within the shared queer identity. By being an organization that is highly visible, we are helping to normalize the LGBTQ+ identity in the popular narrative,” Xu wrote. “This normalization and exposure is a key to curb bigotry and hatred; we’re queer, we’re here, get used to it.”

Allies must share the burden of combatting anti-LGBTQ culture, according to Xu.

“Cultural stigma is the antecedent condition to physical assault, so we must stop it at its root,” Xu wrote. “What that looks like is intervening in speculations on someone else’s sexuality, use of homophobic language, or fetishization of queer people. LGBTQ+ folks should not be the only people speaking up for themselves, and the burden should not be on them to educate and justify their own existence to others.”

Zartman welcomes members of the Georgetown community struggling to find acceptance to Commonplace, the Episcopal-Lutheran Campus Ministry.

“Commonplace wholeheartedly welcomes all types of LGTBQ folks as they are, and we have many students who identify as LGTBQ,” Zartman wrote. “It’s a safe space to bring your whole self, to wrestle with issues of faith.”

Zartman also invites students to join Commonplace on its trip to Shepard’s interment. The group will be leaving the front gates at 9 a.m. Oct. 26, to honor Shepard’s memory at the memorial service.

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