https://www.austinchronicle.com/daily/books/2009-09-28/judy-shepard-reads-at-bookpeople/

Judy Shepard Reads at BookPeople

By Matthew Patin, September 28, 2009, 11:10am, Under the Covers

Thousands will march for marriage equality in Washington on Oct. 11, just a little over eleven years after Matthew Shepard’s brutal murder in Laramie, Wyoming.

Much has changed in the more than a decade since his death: gays and lesbians are more prominent in the media, marriage and civil union laws in a growing number of states have become more inclusive, and gay youth are increasingly coming out at a younger age. This big shift in the GLBT landscape was inevitable, but there’s little doubt that Shepard’s sacrifice helped bring GLBT issues into the national conversation.

It also turned Matthew’s mom, Judy Shepard, into a prominent activist for the GLBT community and, recently, into an author. In Shepard’s new book, The Meaning of Matthew: My Son’s Murder in Laramie, and a World Transformed (Penguin, $25.95), she recounts her experience of learning of Matthew’s death and of being catapulted into the forefront of the gay-rights movement.

Judy Shepard reads at BookPeople tonight (9/28) at 7pm.