Trump Admin Removes Govt Memorial Webpages Of Matthew Shepard and Nex Benedict

Two web pages featuring statements published by the Biden administration in honour of two victims of hate crimes are among a number of LGBTQIA+ related pages removed by the Trump Administration within their first days in office.

The statements from the former president and first lady, Dr Jill Biden in Honour of Nex Benedict and Matthew Shepard, are now only available through the Wayback Machine.

A Champion For Queer History

The Star Observer spoke with Rodney Wilson, founder of America’s LGBTQ History Month about how this erasure of our history bodes for the next four years under Trump.

“These are dangerous moments in US history”, said Wilson, who has been championing queer history as an educator in classrooms and beyond.

“I never expected to be living in an unstable country but this is where we find ourselves” and moreover, communities that are “already marginalized [are being] intentionally targeted for attack and removal from the public sphere”.

As an educator of 34 years, Wilson is “particularly concerned about young people who are LGBTQ and how this affects their emotional well-being.” With four more years of Trump in office to endure, Wilson worries that these are “not the best circumstances under which to continue to grow into the person one is to be”.

The Legacy Of Matthew Shepard

One of the pages deleted from the White House website was the October 2023 statement on the 25th anniversary of the murder of Matthew Shepard.

The statement by then-President Biden outlined the ongoing initiatives championed by Judy and Dennis Shepard in memory of their son. The former President praised the Shepards’ “relentless advocacy” and status as “Uniters – Americans who stand against hate and heal our divides” at a time when “threats and violence targeting the LGBTQI+ community continue to rise”.

While Trump and his administration may be seeking to erase Matthew, his parents, friends and community, along with the foundation in his name will not let his legacy fade.

In 2024 former President Biden awarded Judy Shepard the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her activism alongside her husband Dennis to protect LGBTQIA+ people the world over. In his address, then-President Biden praised her “relentless advocacy” which reminds all that “we must give hate no safe harbor.”

Matthew Shepard died in hospital on 12 October, 1998 after being beaten and left for dead in Laramie, Wyoming.

In his memory, his parents founded The Matthew Shepard Foundation which helped “pioneer the country’s first federal hate crimes legislation with the passing of the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act in 2009”.

The 2000 play The Laramie Project and the 2009 The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later drew from interviews conducted in Shepard’s hometown.

The play is often picketed by the Westboro Baptist Church – life imitating art, imitating art, as the show also portrays the real-life picketing of Shepard’s funeral by the WBC.

Following the funeral picketing, Shepard’s parents did not have their son’s ashes buried or interred for fear that his gravesite would be desecrated. In 2018, just two weeks after the 20th anniversary of Matthew’s murder, his ashes were finally laid to rest at the Washington National Cathedral.

The public remembrance service was led by the Reverend Mariann Edgar Budde, Episcopal bishop of Washington, and Reverend Gene Robinson, the first openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church.

This week, Reverend Budde made headlines after directly addressing Trump at the National Cathedral prayer service for the inauguration.

Reverend Budde implored the President “have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now. There are transgender children in Democratic, Republican and independent families who fear for their lives.”

Nex Benedict: A Life Cut Short

The other statement removed from the White House website did not refer to a historical hate crime, but rather a tragically recent one.

Nex Benedict was a non-binary 16-year-old student at Owasso High School in Oklahoma who was beaten up in the bathrooms at school by a group of girls that they said had previously called them names and thrown things at them.

While the teen’s death was later ruled a suicide by the state medical examiner, 40 students at their high school walked out to protest the lack of accountability for bullying.

In the March 2024 statement, the former president shared that he and Dr Biden were “heartbroken by the recent loss“ and went on to say that “Nonbinary and transgender people are some of the bravest Americans I know. But nobody should have to be brave just to be themselves.”

Before listing crisis support hotlines, Biden went on to reaffirm his commitment to LGBTQIA+ Americans “for whom this tragedy feels so personal, know this: I will always have your back.”