NEW YORK (AP) – The parents of Matthew Shepard, the gay Wyoming college student tortured and murdered in 1998, are traveling to Russia on Friday to spread their message of tolerance and acceptance in a country where anti-gay policies and attitudes are widespread.
The centerpiece of their five-day trip is a gay film festival in St. Petersburg at which the documentary film, “Matt Shepard is a Friend of Mine” will be shown and discussed. The film’s director, Michele Josue, a high school classmate and close friend of Matthew’s, will be accompanying the Shepards on the trip.
The Shepards also will visit Moscow, and are hoping to meet with Russian parents who have gay or lesbian children.
“This is about families loving their kids, no matter who they are,” Judy Shepard said Thursday. “If families would recognize that, everyone else would recognize it.”
The Shepards said they’d been briefed about current conditions in Russia, where gay activists often have been attacked or harassed in recent years and where a 2013 law outlawing the dissemination of “gay propaganda” to minors is widely viewed as a warning signal to the gay-rights movement.