The unfinished legacy of the Matthew Shepard case.

May 8, 2019 compassq 5 THINGS TO KNOW, NEWS, POLICIES Comments Off on The unfinished legacy of the Matthew Shepard case.
Mourners gather for the remembrance ceremony for Matthew Shepard at the National Cathedral in Washington on Oct. 26, 2018. Shepard died on Oct. 12, 1998, after being beaten and tortured, in a crime that widely seen as bringing national attention to hate crime legislation. (Image: Matthew Sobocinski, USA TODAY)

In the fall of 1998, a polite, unassuming gay student in Wyoming was pistol-whipped, tortured and bound to a wooden fence for 18 hours, his body crusted in blood and slumped in dirt.  

The savage assault and death of Matthew Shepard sent…