Mother of gay hate-crime victim to speak at Montco Community College
Judy Shepard, who became an LGBTQ activist after her son Matthew was killed in a hate crime, headlines MCCC’s annual Presidential Symposium on Thursday.
Every year, Montgomery County Community College holds a Presidential Symposium. This year's event has a civil rights theme, to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the college's founding in 1964 -- the same year that the Civil Rights Act was signed into law.
Headlining the 2014 symposium is Judy Shepard, whose son Matthew died in 1998 after being brutally attacked by fellow students at the University of Wyoming in Laramie. Matthew, who was gay, became the focal point and namesake of the federal Hate Crimes Prevention Act.
After her son's death, Shepard and her husband founded the Matthew Shepard Foundation. She began traveling the country for speaking engagements and protests, advocating for equality and tolerance of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people in society. She pushed for tougher penalties for violent crimes motivated by discrimination. Congress passed and President Obama signed such a law, named for Matthew, in October 2009.
Shepard also wrote a book, "The Meaning of Matthew: My Son's Murder in Laramie, and a World Transformed."
The symposium will be held Thursday from 12:45 to 2:15 p.m. in the Science Center Theater, 340 DeKalb Pike, Blue Bell. Admission is free, but tickets are required; call 215-641-6518 to reserve a spot. A simulcast will play at the Pottstown campus, in the South Hall Community Room.
Next week, the college's drama program will begin performances of "The Laramie Project," a play about Matthew. Showings are scheduled fro April 3, 4, and 5 at 8 p.m.; April 4 at 12:30 p.m.; and on April 5 and 6 at 2 p.m. in the Blackbox Theater, Lower Level Science Center at the main campus in Blue Bell. For tickets ($5), call 215-641-6518 or visit mc3.edu/livelyarts.