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OUR ISSUES examines social issues, including human rights, homo/transphobia, homelessness, mental health, bullying, suicide, substance abuse and addictions, and more.

20 YEARS

We invite you to tell the stories of the Matthew Shepards in your life - the stories of those who have struggled in the face of hatred.

20 years ago, on the evening of October 6, 1998, Matthew Shepard, a young, gay student at the University of Wyoming in Laramie was kidnapped, severely beaten, tied to a fence and left to die in a lonely field under a blanket of stars. Six days later, when Matt passed away, the world was watching. Approaching the eve of the 20th anniversary, composer Craig Hella Johnson responded with his first concert-length work, Considering Matthew Shepard.  The video featured here is his work entitled ​"We Tell Each Other Stories."

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In Tribute to Matthew Shepard

Listen closely to the lyrics and consider
why we tell our stories

The horrific events that took place shortly after midnight on October 7, 1998 would become one of the most notorious anti-gay hate crimes in American history and spawned an activist movement that, more than a decade later, would result in passage of the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, a federal law against bias crimes directed at lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender people.

Conversion Therapy

​Conversion Therapy is the pseudoscientific practice using psychological or spiritual interventions to change the sexual orientation of an individual from homosexual or bisexual to heterosexual. 

Learn more about it in some of these videos.

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