This year is the 10th anniversary of Matthew Shepard's death. He died October 12, 1998. He was attacked October 7, 1998. He was attacked because he was gay. Two men in their early 20s, born and raised in the same town as Matt, met him for the first time that night at a bar. One man, A.J. McKinney, said Matt asked for a ride home, the other, Russ Henderson, said they lured him for the purpose of robbing him. Russ drove the car with all 3 men inside. A.J. said Matt put his hand on his leg and reached for his genitals. Russ said they robbed him. A.J. hit him 3 times in the head with his fist. Then, he hit him 6 times in the head with the butt of his pistol. Russ and A.J. tied him to a remote Wyoming fence and beat him further. They left him for dead. He had a crack through his skull from the back of his head to just in front of his right ear. He remained tied to the fence for 18 hours in freezing temperatures before a passerby found him. He was in a coma and remained so until his death. This young man was tortured and killed because he allegedy placed his hand on A.J.'s leg and because, as A.J. himself said "He looked like a queer."

I cannot explain beyond the facts. I could try for a lifetime and I would never be able to explain what anyone has felt about this, not even myself. I wasn't there. I was alive, but I didn't even realize I was like him until six years later. The same month of October. I didn't ask for this. Many, many times, I have begged any divinity to make me heterosexual, to make me forget what I feel. But they won't and I can't. I don't know if it's a gene, it seems a little strange, even illogical to me that it would be genetic. But I can't change it and I don't think divinity wishes I were heterosexual. I know that Matthew Shepard never asked to be beaten and tied to a fence. Whatever your stance on whether or not we are queer by choice, we all know for certain that Russ and A.J. made choices, a lot of choices. They made a choice with every single blow. They made a choice during each of those sixty-four thousand and eight hundred seconds (one thousand and eighty minutes) (eighteen hours) that they left him alone, tied to a fence, dying. We have even more choices to make and let's not make the ones they did. Let's not make choices that lead to the kind of violence and hate that they enacted.