Judy Shepard

Last night I went to Judy Shepard's book signing and talk. She is remarkable. If you don't recoginze her name, you might recognize her son's name: Matthew Shepard. He was "the gay twenty-one-year-old University of Wyoming college student" who was beaten and left hanging on a fence in 1998. It is such a tragic story. Since his death, she has created a foundation to help educate people on diversity and acceptance. Most impressive, she's working on a couple more books right now- one of letters that she has received and a childrens book. She explained that she has received over 100,000 emails and over 10,000 letters about her son. She gave a fascinating talk about Matt, her foundation, and her personal feelings on forgiveness.

I started to read her book last night, and it's really great. I highly recommend it.

I'm going to see her talk again this weekend at the Holocaust Museum, as she will speak before the showing of the Laramie Project (an HBO movie that was made to show the Matthew Shepard story).