Date: Tue, 13 Oct 1998 12:31:28 -1000 From: Mia H H Lam Subject: Oasis Magazine opens area for youth to share their feelings on Matthew's death (fwd) ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Tue, 13 Oct 1998 12:20:39 -1000 From: Jeff Walsh Subject: Oasis Magazine opens area for youth to share their feelings on Matthew's death Oasis Magazine opens special Web site for Matthew Shepard For Immediate Release SAN FRANCISCO -- Oasis Magazine (www.oasismag.com), the largest online magazine for queer and questioning youth, has opened a special area on its Web site for Matthew Shepard, the gay University of Wyoming student who was killed over the weekend. "At first, my instinct was to avoid such a site, considering how many online sites use such tragedies exploitatively and to merely increase the traffic to their Web sites," said Oasis founder and editor Jeff Walsh. "But then I started receiving unsolicited poems and essays from our staff and readers, who wanted a place for queer youth to gather and share their feelings on the tragedy." The site, easily accessible from the main Oasis page, contains poems and essays about Matthew, including a "call to arms" essay from longtime Oasis columnist Derik Cowan, encouraging youth to use Matthew's death as a catalyst for more action. Anyone interested in contributing to this site can send content to jeff@oasismag.com. The site is being updated several times a day. For more information, contact Oasis editor Jeff Walsh at jeff@oasismag.com