"Hate is still out there," says Judy Shepard, almost 10 years after her son, Matthew Shepard, was killed in Laramie, Wyo.



'A SAFE PLACE'

The Matthew Shepard Foundation recently launched a website that Judy Shepard hopes will be a resource for young people.

MatthewsPlace.com is "a safe online place," Shepard says.

The website is geared toward gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning young people who would like to access resources such as counselors, homeless shelters and youth-serving organizations, Shepard says.




Enlarge Matthew Shepard Foundation

Matthew Shepard at age 18. He died at age 21.


Enlarge Matthew Shepard Foundation

Matthew Shepard's life and death inspired the Erase Hate pendant above.


MESSAGES 'FROM ALL WALKS OF LIFE'

Judy Shepard has a few things to say in print, too. She's working on at least two books. One would be a memoir of her life on the road.

"It would be my perception of the last 10 years," she says. She wryly says the title should be Ten Years of Change and No Progress.

Another book will be a distillation of 10,000 letters and 100,000 e-mails she and husband Dennis received after Matthew's murder.

"They came from all walks of life and were in no way limited to just the gay community," she says.

Willie DeJean of San Diego wrote: "Your son did not die in vain. He now lives inside of every gay man and lesbian who has heard his name. He lives inside fathers and mothers whose children are gay. He is now in the thoughts of men and women who may never have thought that homophobia affected their lives. He lives in me."

Her son's third-grade teacher, Linda Babb, wrote: "I tell you from my heart that Matt was not alone along that deserted road. I'm sure The Comforter enveloped Matt and continues to do so."

Says Shepard: "I haven't yet been able to read them all to this day."

John Shelby Spong, a retired Episcopal bishop, even took some of the blame, referring to his church's then-recent proclamation that gay people are "sinful."

"Christianity does have bloody hands," Spong wrote. "We did contribute to the murder of Matthew Shepard."