The Matthew Shepard Revisionism Never Ends

Topic: WorldNetDaily

When Stephen Jimenez's book "The Book of Matt" came out in 2013, we noted how right-wingers embraced its revisionist narrative of attacking Matthew Shepard as a drug dealer who may have had his murder coming to him, pushed an unsubstantiated claim that Shepard and one of his killers may have had sexual relations, ignored the fact that Jimenez is a friend of the defense attorney of Shepard's other killer, and buried the fact that police commander in Laramie, Wyo., at the time of Shepard's death called the book "full of lies" and "conspiracy theory BS" -- all things that make Jimenez's book less than credible.

But Shepard revisionism never ends, as we saw just last month. ANd now professional gay-basher Linda Harvey takes a crack at it in her March 21 WND column, using Jimenez's discredited book as evidence:

Journalist Stephen Jimenez, himself a homosexual, wrote “The Book of Matt” in 2013 after years of research, concluding that McKinney’s attack most likely arose from rage over an unsuccessful drug deal.



McKinney, Jimenez believes, planned to steal methamphetamine from Shepard, luring Shepard away from the bar that fateful night to force Shepard to hand over whatever quantity he possessed. McKinney craved another “high” but also needed the drug sales to pay off pressing debts.



“The Book of Matt” contends that both Shepard and McKinney were dealing drugs, probably working for Denver-based drug rings.



Also revealed in Jimenez’s interviews is the likelihood that McKinney and Shepard knew each other socially, possibly even sexually. Both were reportedly present in a limousine during a group sex encounter, according to Doc O’Connor, the driver. [...] “The Book of Matt” is dismissed by the left, but their criticism flags in the face of Jimenez’s painstaking research and courage to tell some inconvenient truths.



Shepard struggled with alcohol and drugs himself, but was reportedly also dealing. Friends reported he, too, was heavily in debt, and although an affectionately remembered friend, was hardly the meek homosexual student portrayed as the victim of redneck “homophobia.”



Shepard’s and McKinney’s drug involvement was left unexamined during the murder trials. But details on this and their sexual histories began to emerge through research for an ABC “20/20” documentary. [...] “The myth of Matthew Shepard has been destroyed, ironically by a homosexual reporter,” said Peter LaBarbera, president of Americans for Truth. “Tragically, Shepard himself reportedly sexually abused boys when he was a teenager. Of course, don’t expect the media and the ‘LGBTQ’ lobby, who used his death for political gain, to correct the record.”

Harvey then despicably attacks Shepard's parents for becooming activists in the wake of their son's murder:

What qualifies Matthew’s parents to present “hate-crimes” training and lectures to Kentucky law students? They also spoke to 500 public school students in Lexington, Kentucky, in 2015. Apparently, they coordinate with the U.S. Department of Justice on hate-crimes “training.”



Their time would be more logically spent uncovering child sex abusers and demanding prosecution for perpetrators along with stronger enforcement of drug laws.

Harvey even attacks the play inspired by Shepard's murder, "The Laramie Project," as "truth-challenged," even though absolute factual accuracy is a standard to which the vast majority of "inspired by a true story" works of art ever meet.

In short, haters are gonna hate. And Harvey is nothing if not a gay-hater.