Date: Tue, 12 Oct 1999 16:48:56 -0400 From: "Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD)" Subject: NEWS FROM LARAMIE: GLAAD AND NCAVP REPORT ON SHEPARD TRIAL AND COMMUNITY RESPONSE IN LARAMIE MEDIA RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Media Contact: Wonbo Woo, Communications Manager phone: (212) 807-1700 x24 pager: (800) 689-0196 e-mail: woo@glaad.org NEWS FROM LARAMIE GLAAD AND NCAVP REPORT ON SHEPARD TRIAL AND COMMUNITY RESPONSE IN LARAMIE LARAMIE, WYO., TUESDAY, OCTOBER 12, 1999 - As a service to news media professionals, the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) and the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs (NCAVP) are providing this release, featuring summary of judicial proceedings and community activities surrounding the trial of Aaron McKinney, the second man charged in the murder of Matthew Shepard. GLAAD Director of Community Relations Cathy Renna and NCAVP Steering Committee Member Jeffrey Montgomery have been in Laramie, Wyo., since Sunday, working to assist local activists and community members in their efforts. Both are available for further comment, and have provided GLAAD with scans of photographs taken in Laramie and available for electronic distribution to press. Interview or image requests should be directed to GLAAD Communications Manager Wonbo Woo at (212) 807-1700 x24. Jury selection in the trial began Monday and McKinney's attorney, Dion Custis, laid out a defense strategy through his comments to prospective jurors. While Custis indicated that the defense would neither deny McKinney's involvement in Shepard's death, nor that they would plead insanity per se, he stated that McKinney was under the influence of alcohol and methamphetamines at the time of the beating and suggested that McKinney's judgment was therefore impaired. Custis told prospective jurors that McKinney's "mental state will certainly be a crucial question for you to answer." "The defense is likely to mimic the strategies of so many other perpetrators of hate crimes by grasping at straws with the inclusion of the 'gay panic' defense and putting the victim on trial," said Montgomery. "Suggesting that alcohol, drugs or Matthew Shepard himself were responsible for Matthew's death is a travesty unto itself." In addition to McKinney's trial, there are local community events being held throughout the week, responding to the trial and the renewed media attention to Laramie, commemorating the one year anniversary of Shepard's death, and celebrating both National Coming Out Day and the University of Wyoming's Gay Awareness Week. Renna said this morning, "Even at the start of what promises to be a long and difficult few weeks for the residents of Laramie, they have shown incredible courage and spirit. The events they've pulled together demonstrate a sense of solidarity in their grief and an incredible determination to move forward from this horrible tragedy and the attention it's brought to their hometown." Highlights of Sunday's activities included a candlelight vigil leading into a performance by folk legends Peter, Paul and Mary. Hundreds attended the vigil at Prexy's Pasture, organized by the University of Wyoming's Catholic Newman Center, and then carried their candles from the vigil to the concert. Peter, Paul and Mary's Peter Yarrow spoke with nationwide media on Sunday and early Monday about the personal impact that Shepard's death has had on the trio, telling the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle, "Part of us died with him." At the concert, the group performed numerous songs, including the classic "There But For Fortune," with a new verse added by Yarrow. The text of that verse reads: "Show me a gay man who is hated and scorned, who's killed for just being the way he was born and I'll show you a young man with so many reasons why there but for fortune go you or go I, you and I." On Monday, as jury selection proceeded inside the Albany County courthouse, the virulently anti-gay Fred Phelps was on-hand to demonstrate again, having previously protested Shepard's funeral and the trial of Russell Henderson. A group called Angel Action responded to Phelps' picketing, as it had done during the Henderson trial. Led by Romaine Patterson and Jim Osborn, friends of Shepard's, nearly 20 students and community members donned angel costumes with 12-foot wingspans, silently protesting Phelps' rhetoric and exasperation of the community's struggles. In response to widespread interest in their activities, a website has been set up at http://www.angelaction.org detailing the group's philosophy of peaceful demonstration and providing plans for reproducing its efforts in other communities facing hateful rhetoric and actions. Following the end of the day's proceedings, documentary filmmaker Beverly Seckinger previewed her forthcoming film, Laramie: In Love and Trouble, which chronicles the murder and the impact it has had upon Seckinger's own hometown of Laramie. And in nearby Ft. Collins, Colo., the Lambda Community Center sponsored a rally in honor of National Coming Out Day. Shepard had spent much of his time in Ft. Collins, and eventually died there, and a clear focus of the event was to remember his life and commemorate his death. The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) is dedicated to promoting and ensuring fair, accurate and inclusive representation of individuals and events in all media as a means of eliminating homophobia and discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation. The National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs (NCAVP) addresses the pervasive problem of violence committed against and within the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and HIV-positive (LGBTH) communities. NCAVP is a coalition of programs that document and advocate for victims of anti-LGBTH violence/harassment, domestic violence, sexual assault, police misconduct, and other forms of victimization. NCAVP is dedicated to creating a national response to the violence plaguing these communities. Furthermore, NCAVP supports existing anti-violence organizations and emerging local programs in the efforts to document and prevent such violence. -30- __________________________________________________________________________ Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) glaad@glaad.org TO REPORT DEFAMATION IN THE MEDIA - Call GLAAD's Alertline at 1.800.GAY.MEDIA or go to the GLAAD Web Site at www.glaad.org and report through our Alertline Online. TO JOIN GLAAD AND RECEIVE GLAAD's QUARTERLY GLAADNOTES MAGAZINE, call 1.800.GAY.MEDIA or join on the Web today at www.glaad.org/glaad/join/join-about.html TO SUBSCRIBE TO GLAAD-Net, GLAAD's electronic mailing list, send e-mail to majordomo@vector.casti.com with the message "Subscribe GLAAD-Net" (without the quotation marks). Make sure that you turn off all signatures and extraneous text. TO UNSUBSCRIBE, send e-mail to majordomo@vector.casti.com with the message "Unsubscribe GLAAD-Net" (without the quotation marks). Make sure that you turn off all signatures and extraneous text. The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) is a national organization that promotes fair, accurate and inclusive representation of individuals and events in the media as a means of combating homophobia and challenging discrimination based on sexual orientation or identity. __________________________________________________________________________ "GLAAD" and "Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation" are registered trademarks of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, Inc.