This archive report was first published on 17 October 2019.
On October 17, 2019, Judy and Dennis Shepard, the parents of Matthew Shepard, a gay college student whose murder led to the passage of the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, criticized the Trump administration's record on civil rights in a letter read aloud at a Justice Department ceremony.
The Shepards were invited to speak at the ceremony to mark the 10th anniversary of the law named after their son and James Byrd Jr., a black man who was dragged to his death behind a pickup truck in Texas in 1998. However, they were unable to attend due to travel issues and instead sent a letter that was read aloud by Cynthia M. Deitle, the programs and operations director of the Matthew Shepard Foundation.
In their letter, the Shepards singled out Attorney General William P. Barr for what they saw as the Trump administration's failure to protect the rights of transgender people. They alluded to cases recently argued before the Supreme Court about gay and transgender people who were fired from their jobs, with the Trump administration filing briefs supporting the employers in both cases.
