Darkness & Light
Thirteen years ago today marks one of the saddest and darkest days in GLBT history – The day that Matthew Shepard was attacked, tortured and killed by Russell Henderson and Aaron McKinney in Wyoming. 1998 seems like a lifetime ago – The strides taken by the GLBT community since then have been massive and fantastic. Gay marriage, civil union laws, including sexual orientation and gender identity in human rights’ and civil rights’ legislation and the gradual media acceptance with more and more inclusion of GLBT characters, television shows, films and more giving actual names and faces to what so many people previously feared have caused an explosion of sorts in the last decade. I couldn’t be more proud of my generation (it so makes up for the atrocious other things we’ve “accomplished”, like, you know, “Jersey Shore”) and the many generations that so understood activism in the decades before.
In October of 1998, I had just turned 13 years old (let’s not do the math – I know I’m young, or old depending on where exactly you, my dear reader are at :), and age is nothing but a number – Wisdom and love and what you do with those things are what matter of course). It was an interesting time as I was heavily in that awkward junior high school phase where you’re not exactly a kid anymore but you’re far from an adult, nothing seems to fit or look quite right and you feel so out of place and suddenly foreign in your own skin. I was always somebody that tried to maintain an awareness about the world around me, even as a sullen, greasy-haired adolescent. I remember the media, the articles and stories, that followed and the shocking, gruesome nature of the crime as more and more details poured forth after his untimely death. (more…)
ThisIsAshleyQuinn 