7 - The Scarecrow Christ: The Murder of Matthew Shepard and the Making of an American Culture Wars Martyr

Summary

Abstract

Paul Middleton deals with the contested homosexual martyr Matthew Shepard. Matthew Shepard, a gay twenty-one year old political science student at the University of Wyoming, was robbed and brutally beaten by two other men on the night of Tuesday, 6 October 1998. The men tied him to a fence after the attack, while he was bleeding profusely in freezing temperatures. He died a few days later, on 12 October 1998, and was called a martyr in Time Magazine, just a week after his death. Middleton examines the popular martyr-making process in respect of Matthew Shepard, arguing that both the making of the martyr and the reaction it provoked reflect American ‘culture wars’, because martyrology is conflict literature, foremost about the conflict between the story-tellers and their opponents. Ironically, both LGBT activists and right-wing religious groups have in some ways sought to undermine Shepard's martyr status by focusing on his life rather than his death. Such efforts, as Middleton argues, had a limited effect because in martyrologies any interest in the lives of their heroes is incidental, merely setting up the scene for a significant death.

Keywords: Matthew Shepard, homosexual martyrs, martyr-making process, homophobia, contested martyrologies

On the night of Tuesday, 6 October 1998, Matthew Shepard, a gay twenty-one year old political science student at the University of Wyoming, met two other men, Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson, in the Fireside Bar in Laramie, Wyoming. After offering him a ride in their car, they robbed Shepard, drove him to the outskirts of town, and tied him to a fence. There, McKinney brutally beat him with a .357 Magnum around the head as Henderson watched. They left him, still tied to the fence, bleeding profusely in freezing temperatures. He was found by chance some eighteen hours later by a passing cyclist, who at first mistook him for a scarecrow. Shepard sustained massive injuries including a crushed skull, and was rushed to Poudre Valley Hospital in Fort Collins, Colorado. However, his injuries were too severe to treat, and he never regained consciousness. In the early hours of Monday, 12 October 1998, seven weeks short of his twenty-second birthday, Matthew Shepard died.

The brutal murder of Matthew Shepard was one of well over 1000 reported attacks on gay men that year, and one of around 30 murders.