The Torch

Issue date: 10/29/09 Section: Arts

Karess Ann Slaughter is the 36th reigning Empress of the Imperial Sovereign Court of the Emerald Empire in Eugene. She will perform a song from Whitney Houston's new album at the LCC Performance Hall on Oct. 30 to help raise funds for the Matthew Sheppard Foundation. [Click to enlarge]

LCC's Black Student Union and the Imperial Sovereign Court of the Emerald Empire in Eugene will take over the LCC Performance Hall Friday, Oct. 30 to celebrate Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender History Month. Their show, "In Memoriam: a Benefit for the Matthew Sheppard Foundation," will feature guest speakers, drag, and dance performances.

Matthew Sheppard, 21, was a gay student at the University of Wyoming. He had a strong passion for equality and pursued his studies in political science, foreign relations and languages. On Oct. 7, 1998, two men lead Sheppard to a remote area outside of Laramie, Wyo. They brutally assaulted Sheppard, tied him to a fence and left him for dead. He was found 18 hours later by a bicyclist, who initially mistook him for a scarecrow. Sheppard was rushed to the hospital and died on Oct. 12 of the same year.

Mathew's parents, Dennis and Judy Sheppard, founded the Mathew Sheppard foundation in memory of their son who died from an anti-gay hate crime. Its mission is to "support diversity programs in education and to help youth organizations establish environments where young people can feel safe and be themselves," the foundation website states.

"It's important that people realize it's a big issue here in Eugene and the United States," BSU Vice President Mario Parker-Milligan said. "People are dying simply because of what they are, who they are."

BSU and ISCEE teamed up to put the benefit together. "It came about that we saw a need, they had a need and we decided to work together, birthing 'In Memoriam,'" BSU President Azariah Victoria iRockstar-Hilton (a name he legally refashioned), said. Both organizations donated money directly from their own funds to cover the costs of the benefit and its advertising. All proceeds of the benefit will go directly to the Mathew Sheppard Foundation.

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