Judy Shepard, Meet Barack Obama

by Michael Jones · 2009-05-20 19:01:00 UTC
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Judy Shepard

How's this for a photo of the week?  Judy Shepard, whose son Matthew was killed in a hate crime more than ten years ago in Laramie, Wyoming, has been one of the biggest champions for expanded federal hate crimes legislation that would include protections on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.  This week, she met with President Barack Obama at the White House to discuss the efforts in Congress to pass hate crimes legislation.

According to the Advocate:

Upon arriving at the White House on Wednesday, Shepard first met with the president in the Oval Office. The meeting was short -- “It was supposed to be 10 minutes, but his meeting beforehand ran long and I only had a minute or so with him,” Shepard said. But it was long enough for Obama to assure Shepard that he was still a supporter of the hate-crimes bill named in honor of her son, a gay man who was murdered in Laramie, Wyo., in 1998 at age 21.

I know Obama has been getting some flak over these past few weeks, including from several posts right here on this blog.  But it's still a really powerful image to see Judy Shepard at the White House.  After eight years of voices for equality not having any access to the Executive Branch of our government, this picture speaks over 1,000 words.

Michael Jones is a Change.org Editor. He has worked in the field of human rights communications for a decade, most recently for Harvard Law School.
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