Matthew Shepard’s Murder Spotlights Anti-LGBT Animus

August 22, 2019

In a horrific hate crime that captures the nation’s attention and spotlights the hostility LGBT people face, Matthew Shepard, a 21-year-old openly gay college student, is brutally beaten and left for dead near Laramie, Wyoming. He dies six days later in a hospital in Fort Collins, CO.

In Hawaii, anti-LGBT activists wage and win a multi-million-dollar campaign to pass the first state constitutional amendment in the nation to ban same-sex marriage.

The times require a fortified movement. The Gill Foundation dedicates funding to intensive leadership development and fundraising support for LGBT organizations, sending OutGiving Project staff to train activists across the country.