Matthew Shepard, Gay Student Killed in Hate Crime, to Be Interred at National Cathedral

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Source: NBCwashington.com {WRC-TV, NBC affiliate in DC}

Matthew Shepard, Gay Student Killed in Hate Crime, to Be Interred at National Cathedral

Shepard's ashes will be interred at the Washington National Cathedral following a remembrance service

By Erica Jones
Published 6 minutes ago

It's been 20 years since Matthew Shepard, a 21-year-old openly gay college student, was abducted and killed in Wyoming.

On Oct. 26, he will finally be laid to rest. ... Shepard's ashes will be interred at the Washington National Cathedral after a service to celebrate and remember his life.

Shepard's parents picked the Cathedral as his final resting place because he loved the Episcopal church and felt welcomed at one he attended in Wyoming.
....

"In the years since Matthew's death, the Shepard family has shown extraordinary courage and grace in keeping his spirit and memory alive, and the Cathedral is honored and humbled to serve as his final resting place," said the Very Rev. Randolph Marshall Hollerith, dean of Washington National Cathedral.

Read more: https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/Matthew-Shepard-Gay-Student-Killed-in-Hate-Crime-to-Be-Interred-at-National-Cathedral-496939151.html

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David Fahrenthold Retweeted:

https://twitter.com/Fahrenthold

Matthew Shepard Will Be Interred at the Washington National Cathedral, 20 Years After His Death

Link to tweet

[Archae]

1. There still are groups and individuals smearing him.

Saying he was a dope dealer, this is based on the changing story of one of his killers, naturally.

[niyad]

2. thank you for posting this.

[magicarpet]

3. Safe ground at last.

[Hekate]

4. Rest peacefully forever, Matthew, and hearts ease to your loved ones

[KPN]

5. Thank you for posting this.

May you Rest In Peace Matthew with the full knowledge that your life and untimely, unwanted sacrifice have served to better the lives of millions. God bless you forever.

[JudyM]

6. ...

His spirit tremendously helped to shift the national dialogue.

[wryter2000]

7. Proud Episcopalian here

This makes me very happy

[Turin_C3PO]

10. Same here.

I get to keep my Catholic sensibilities while embracing diversity. It’s a wonderful church.

[Johnny2X2X]

8. Sad case

This horrific case will never be forgotten, but the one thing that sticks with me is that his killers presented a defense of, "But he came onto me." I'm sure he didn't, but even if he did as that was somehow an excuse for violence of any type. And that reflects the attitude of many small town men and boys across the country for decades, that beating someone because they hit on you was totally justified. Even now you still hear men say, "I have no problem with gays, as long as they don't hit on me..." Like if someone of the same sex flirts with you it's license to get violent.

Totally comfortable with who I am, if a gay guy hits on me, first I am flattered and I'll thank them and not reciprocate, it's totally not even necessary for me to proclaim my straightness, I could care less if anyone things I am gay or not. If a guy is persistent and bothersome, I will then mention I am straight and happily married. But that's not how it always was, I remember in my youth (the 80s) being thought gay was a huge deal to most men I knew, if accused of being gay men would go to great lengths to prove their straightness and "manhood."

[mahatmakanejeeves]

9. 20 Years After His Death, Ashes Of Matthew Shepard To Be Interred At Washington National Cathedral

20 Years After His Death, Ashes Of Matthew Shepard To Be Interred At Washington National Cathedral {VIDEO}

The New York Times reports:

For 20 years, the ashes of Matthew Shepard have not been laid to rest. Mr. Shepard’s killing in 1998, when he was a 21-year-old college student, led to national outrage and, almost overnight, turned him into a symbol of deadly violence against gay people.

Mourners flocked to his funeral that year in Casper, Wyo., but there were also some protesters, carrying derogatory signs. Mr. Shepard’s parents worried that if they chose a final resting place for their son, it would be at risk of desecration. Now they have found a safe place. On Oct. 26, Mr. Shepard will be interred at the Washington National Cathedral, the neo-Gothic, Episcopalian house of worship that is a fixture of American politics and religion.

“I think it’s the perfect, appropriate place,” Dennis Shepard, Matthew’s father, said in an interview on Thursday. “We are, as a family, happy and relieved that we now have a final home for Matthew, a place that he himself would love.”

Read the full piece.

More from the Washington Post:

“We were hopeful through the Obama administration and with the end of ‘don’t ask, don’t tell,’ and the passage of gay marriage, that maybe we were moving into an era when social and political wars over gender and sexuality were fading, but it didn’t go that way,” said Jason Marsden, executive director of the Matthew Shepard Foundation, which advocates in particular for gay youth, including through hate crimes legislation. Marsden was friends with Shepard in the year or two before he was killed. “In everything from the alt-right to white supremacist movements, these are reversals.”

Shepard had been active in the Episcopal Church as a youth, Marsden said, including being an altar server at St. Mark’s in Casper, Wyo. Yet after his murder, his family “was struggling” to figure out how to bury the 21-year-old. “They were very cautious of doing something that would lead to weird pilgrimages or vandalism,” Marsden said. Westboro Baptist Church in fact made a name for itself after protesting Shepard’s funeral with anti-gay signs.

20 years after his death, Matthew Shepard will be interred at @WNCathedral on 10/26 at 10 am. More details at http://cathedral.org/matthewshepard

Link to tweet

[Turin_C3PO]

11. RIP Matthew.

May your memory never be forgotten.

[marble falls]

12. A good decision!

[kwassa]

13. why I love my Episcopal church ...

This is local for me. The Washington diocese.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/ct-matthew-shepard-interred-national-cathedral-20181011-story.html

On Oct. 26, his ashes will be placed in a niche in the crypt columbarium, a private, off-limits area on the lower level of the massive Gothic cathedral, which is the seat of the Episcopal Church and a popular spot for high-profile national spiritual events. Shepard, who had been active in the Episcopal Church, will be one of around 200 people interred at the cathedral in the last century. Others include President Woodrow Wilson; Helen Keller and her teacher, Anne Sullivan; and U.S. Navy Admiral George Dewey, said cathedral spokesman Kevin Eckstrom. Although visitors will not be able to access the crypt, Cathedral officials are considering installing a plaque that they can view and touch, similar to the one in braille installed for Keller.

The Oct. 26 service will be open to the public, and it will be presided over by Washington's Episcopal bishop, Mariann Edgar Budde, and Bishop Gene Robinson, whose 2003 ordination as the first openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church set off a dramatic split in the denomination that is still unfolding. Robinson is friends with Matthew's parents, Judy and Dennis Shepard."If I know anything about God, it is that God can bring something good out of something terrible. And movements need symbols. [The gay-equality movement has] the triangle, that reminds of what was used to brand us during the Holocaust, the rainbow flag, and we've got Matt Shepard, who became a symbol of how we are targets of violence," Robinson said Wednesday night. "This could be a wonderful place for Matt's ashes to rest, and where people could go and make a kind of pilgrimage. All of us human beings need special places to go and remember important things, and I think this could become a destination for LGBTQ people who have known violence in their own lives, which keeps being an issue, despite all the gains we've made."

It wasn't possible to reach Shepard's family, but Robinson said his parents were "looking for a safe place" to put their son's remains and had reached out to Robinson after someone suggested interring him at the Cathedral."

[blue-wave]

14. RIP Matthew

My Episcopalian side is joyful that Matthew found open arms and was welcomed.