Podcast appearances and mentions of Judy Shepard

Dennis and Judy Shepard's gay son Matthew Shepard was murdered in October 1998. The 21-year-old University of Wyoming student's death remains one of America's most high-profile cases of hate crime against an LGBTQI+ person. The grieving Shepards created a foundation in his name, and led the fight to pass the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Act, to help the federal government track and prosecute LGBTQI+ hate crimes. Dennis and Judy have been visiting New Zealand speaking at a range of events, including with NZ Police, to highlight LGBTQI+ security concerns and share their story.

In the aftermath of her son Matthew's infamous murder in 1998, Judy Shepard and her surviving family take on the campaign to pass hate crimes legislation, and establish a foundation to support queer youth (interviewed by Eric Jansen of “Out in the Bay Radio”). And in NewsWrap: Bulgaria's Supreme Court clears punk music star Milena Slavova of discrimination charges for her viral homophobic social media post, failed anti-queer French presidential candidate Éric Zemmour is fined for denigrating lesbian mothers, Spokane, Washington's Odyssey Youth Movement is vandalized four times in less than a month, the Public Library in Madison, Alabama pulls a picture book from its children's section because the author's last name is Gay, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals upholds a lower court's block of Florida's unconstitutional ban on family-friendly drag shows, the Parliament of the Australian state of New South Wales hosts its own Drag Storytime, and more international LGBTQ news reported this week by Joe Boehnlein and Tanya Kane-Parry (produced by Brian DeShazor).  All this on the October 16, 2023 edition of This Way Out! Join our family of listener-donors today at http://thiswayout.org/donate/

In commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the murder of Matthew Shepard, we rebroadcast our coverage of the 1998 hate crime that sparked an international outcry. The report features University of Wyoming Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Association President Jim Osborne, Wyoming Governor Jim Geringer and state Representative Michael Massey, Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Center Executive Director Lorri Jean, Human Rights Campaign legal counselor Tony Varona, gay Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank, comedian Ellen DeGeneres, Shepard's friend Walter Bouden and parents Dennis and Judy Shepard, plus music by Melissa Etheridge and Blackberri. And in NewsWrap: a Mauritian activist wins his Supreme Court challenge to the colonial-era law against sex between men, the organization Eswatini Sexual and Gender Minorities says the Minister of Commerce, Industry and Trade still refuses to grant it legal recognition, fanatical Christian bikers try to blockade a peaceful pro-LGBTQ march in Beirut, 14 supposedly queer-positive U.S. schools receive bomb threats within a week of being targeted by the far-right Libs of TikTok account, Tennessee gets its first out transgender elected official as Olivia Hill is sworn in as a member of the Metropolitan Council of Nashville and Davidson County, black lesbian Laphonza Butler takes the seat of the late California Senator Diane Feinstein, and more international LGBTQ news reported this week by Ava Davis and David Hunt (produced by Brian DeShazor).  All this on the October 9, 2023 edition of This Way Out! Join our family of listener-donors today at http://thiswayout.org/donate/

On today's show, we remember Mathew Shepard - a gay University of Wyoming student murdered 25 years ago this month. His death impacted Laramie, Wyoming, and the nation, symbolizing the oppression and violence faced by gay and other marginalized Americans. We're going to do things a little differently by playing stories from Wyoming Public Radio's 10th and 20th anniversary coverage and new reporting from this year, including checking in on the impact this coverage had on an AP reporter, 20 years later, the autopsy was released and we spoke to the coroner, and we go around the UW campus to see if college students think Laramie has changed. We also speak with Judy Shepard, who is Mathew's mother. Those stories and more.

Chris Mottola is in his fifth decade as a Republican media consultant, with nearly 400 campaigns under his belt - including seven presidential campaigns and working with eleven US Seantors and six governors. His client list includes the highest echelons of GOP names like Bush, Dole, McCain, Giuliani, Specter, Rubio, Pataki, Sununu, Frist & many more. In this conversation, we talk his nearly lifelong passion for film, the non-political techniques he's brought to his political work, what drew him into campaigns, lessons learned from some of the smartest operatives who preceded him, and the stories behind some of his most memorable campaigns and effective TV ads.IN THIS EPISODEChris's roots as a Philly kid…The movie that ignited Chris's passion for film at age 7…Chris breaks down his embrace of “formalism” in filmmaking…A memorable first press conference in his first real political job…Handling over 50 spots in one cycle as a young NRCC production staffer…Chris tells lessons learned from legendary admakers Bob Goodman and Charles Guggenheim…Chris on the influence of “his favorite person on campaigns" , pollster Arthur Finkelstein…Chris talks some of his signature wins in Wisconsin and Florida as he establishes himself as a media consultant…Chis explains how a narrow loss to Patty Murray in the 1992 Washington Senate race that spurred his growth as a consultant…Chris's work for longtime PA Senator Arlen Specter and the drama around his 2009 party switch…Chris's time riding the campaign bus with Bob Dole in 1996…Chris on his work for colorful Montana Senator Conrad Burns…The story behind Chris's creation of the first gay rights spot for a Republican Senator…Three techniques that make Chris's spots a little different…Chris's 1970s moonlighting as an offensive football guru…How Chris embraced women voiceover artists…Why Philadelphia over-indexes on political media consultants and production talent… AND 80/20 questions, Adagio for Strings, JJ Balaban, the barbers' union, Brian Bellick, Ed Blakely, Don Bonker, Bertolt Brecht, Tom Brokaw, Buckely v. Valeo, the C&S Club, the Capitol Hill Club, Jimmy Carter, Alex Castellanos, Ronald Castille, Rod Chandler, commuter schools, Gary Cooper, Earl Cox, Mouse Davis, Dickens' novels, Fund for a Conservative Majority, David Garth, Tony Earl, Wilson Goode, Rod Goodwin, Bill Green, Gary Hart, Jesse Helms, Bernard Herrman, Edward Hopper, the Houston Gamblers, Asa Hutchinson, Peter Jennings, Andi Johnson, Ted Kennedy, laundry lists of grievances, Connie Mack, Buddy MacKay, Joseph Mankiewicz, David Marsden, George McGovern, Sally Mercer, Michealangelo's Pieta, Jack Mudd, Mike Murphy, Patty Murray, Neil Newhouse, old auctioneers, Neil Oxman, George Pataki, pearl clutching, potato peelers, Hester Prynne, Jerry Rafshoon, Dan Rather, Resonance Theory, the run-and-shoot, Tony Schwartz, Doc Schweitzer, seersucker suits, Judy Shepard, Matthew Shepard, Saul Shorr, Don Sipple, Gordon Smith, Bob Squier, Greg Stevens, stick time, Temple University, Tommy Thompson, Pat Toomey, the Voight-Kampff test, Bill Walsh, the World Football League, you bet....& more!

Judy Shepard will be my guest for a very special Conversations with Alan episode in The Locher Room. Judy will join me to discuss the impact of her son Matthew's murder, which was motivated by anti-gay hate, and the incredible work of the Matthew Shepard Foundation in their efforts to carry on Matthew's legacy. Judy will share what we can all do to make this world a more accepting place for everyone, regardless of race, religion, ethnicity, sex, gender identity and expression, or sexual orientation. In October 1998, Matthew's death moved many thousands of people around theworld to attend vigils and rallies in his memory. Determined to prevent others from suffering their son's fate, Judy and Dennis decided to turn their grief into action and established the Matthew Shepard Foundation to carry on Matthew's legacy. The Foundation is dedicated to working toward the causes championed by Matthew during his life: social justice, diversity awareness & education, and equality for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people.Judy Shepard is the founding president of the Matthew Shepard Foundation Board of Directors, and served as its first executive director as well, from 1999 to 2009. In her continuing role as board president, she travels across the nation speaking to audiences. Speaking from a mother's perspective, Judy also authored a 2009 memoir, “The Meaning of Matthew,” exploring the family's journey through the prosecution of Matthew's assailants, the ensuing media coverage, and their continuing work to advance civil rights. Originally trained as a teacher, Mrs. Shepard holds a Bachelor of the Arts degree in Secondary Education from the University of Wyoming where she later pursued some post-graduate studies. She and Dennis continue to make their home in Casper, Wyoming.Original Airdate: 1/26/2022

On a special edition of TFC, Dennis and Judy Shepard come on to the Cyclones Podcast to share their touching, emotional story of the Matthew Shepard Foundation, named after their son, Matthew Shepard. This podcast delves into inclusivity and the need for such in our communities.As the Cyclones inch closer to the team's annual Shutout The Hate Night on November 18, we hope this episode serves as a reminder that hockey is for everyone and that everyone should be treated equal.

The following episode contains graphic depiction of a violent hate crime and may be harmful or traumatizing to some audiences. Listener discretion is advised.  Matthew Shepard was a 21-year-old, openly gay college student at the University of Wyoming when he met two young men in a bar. What happened next would become one of the most notorious anti-gay hate crimes in American history. Host Kim Goldman talks with Matthew's mother, Judy Shepard, who shares her family's traumatic story, the media's shocking behavior throughout their experience, and the incredible work she's been able to do through the Matthew Shepard Foundation.  Follow Judy on Twitter and Instagram. Links:  PFLAG GLAAD Sponsor: Get 10% off your first month of therapy at BetterHelp.com/CIRCUSSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hi! I'm on a bit of a summer schedule but wanted to share something I thought you might like (produced by yours truly). Media Circus takes an inside look at private tragedy in the public eye, and explores how the media got it right, got it wrong, and got in the way. In each episode, Victim Advocate and Author Kim Goldman gives us a fresh, behind-the-scenes look into high profile crimes you think you know, told by the victims and their families who were thrust into the spotlight in their most vulnerable moments. Media Circus connects you with the real people beyond the media coverage to share their stories -- in their own words, on their own terms.Check it out and give it a favorite or follow. Support the show

Each episode of Media Circus will take an in-depth look at cases that rattled the world. Stories will include parent advocates like Judy Shepard, mother of Matthew Shepard, who was a victim of one of the biggest hate crimes of our time, and Fred Guttenberg, whose daughter was killed in the Parkland school shooting. You'll also hear directly from victims like Kiki Doe, one of the many whose lives were forever changed by sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, and Gina DeJesus, an Ohio girl who, at the age of 14-years-old, was kidnapped and held prisoner for 9 years, along with two other girls, before being rescued. In this first episode, Kim Goldman, host, Victim Advocate and sister of Ron Goldman, who was murdered alongside Nicole Brown Simpson, shares her own personal story of loss, resilience, and purpose. Kim shares why creating this podcast and helping victims to tell their own stories is her personal mission.  Follow Kim Goldman on Twitter, Instagram and her website kimberlygoldman.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In 2014, Zaylore Stout took a drive across the country. State line after state line, he found himself detouring to landmarks of the LGBT+ heroes and history in each new place. And so, like a travel guide through the LGBT+ past and present, Our Gay History in Fifty States was born.   Yes it's a book … but really … its an encyclopedia of facts and figures.  Encompassing all fifty states as well as Washington, DC, and island territories, Our Gay History in Fifty States documents the highs and lows of American LGBT+ history. In its pages, you'll learn about LGBT+ presidents and Two-Spirit warriors, the inclusive progression of the gay rights movement, iconic orange juice boycotts, and the true origin of vogue dancing. From the childhood homes of historical figures to the safe spaces of grassroots organizations, this book is filled with destinations for those on their own local or cross-country tours of the past.Zaylore serves as a fierce advocate on LGBT issues. Through his law firm, Zaylore Stout & Associates, LLC he's represented HIV+ and transgender employees who were discriminated against at work. He volunteers through the LGBT Law Clinic and serves on the board for RECLAIM, an LGBTQIA+ nonprofit. He also ran for City Council in St. Louis Park where he championed the call for the passage of a Gender Inclusion Policy to protect transgender and gender non-conforming youth in schools. In November 2017, he gave an impassioned speech at the Quorum's National Coming Out Day Luncheon alongside Judy Shepard. His law firm was recently selected by the Minneapolis St. Paul Business Journal for their Business of Pride award, and he was also won a contest putting him on the cover of Lavender Magazine.Zaylore Stout & Associates - http://www.stoutslaw.com/Our Gay History in 50 States - https://www.gay50states.com/Project Implicit - https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/takeatest.htmlSupport the show (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/TalesLGBTQ+)

Music By: Jonas Bjornstad Cover Ary By: Charnell  Our Story - Matthew Shepard Foundation The Meaning of Matthew: My Son's Murder in Laramie and a World Transformed by:Judy Shepard with Jon Barrett. 'The Book of Matt: Hidden Truths About the Murder of Matthew Shepard' by Stephen Jimenez - Lambda Literary Changing Hearts and Minds - Matthew Shepard Foundation Matthew Shepard - Wikipedia  Geen, Jessica (October 28, 2009). "Mother of Matthew Shepard welcomes U.S. hate crimes bill". Pink News. Archived from the original on November 2, 2009. Retrieved October 28, 2009.

On this week's episode, join Erin Gruwell for a candid conversation about healing after tragedy with the impactful LGBTQIA+ advocate and activist, Judy Shepard. Judy is the mother of Matthew Shepard, an openly gay student who was savagely tortured, tied to a fence and left to die in Laramie, Wyoming in October of 1998. In the wake of his loss, Judy and her husband embarked on a campaign for change - one that took her from her humble hometown in Wyoming, to the highest office in the land, the White House. She has been instrumental in enacting meaningful hate crime legislation on behalf of her son and the LGBTQIA+ community. Learn more about the Matthew Shepard Foundation: https://www.matthewshepard.org/

For Video Edition, Please Click and Subscribe Here:  https://youtu.be/JeJgwTdqNao Richard Skipper and Carolyn Montgomery chat about her career and keeping creative in an ever changing world. Carolyn Montgomery is a MAC, Bistro and Nightlife award winning singer and songwriter. She performs in theaters and clubs across the country and in Europe, including Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, 54 Below, Crazy Coqs London, Davenports Chicago and The Pittsburgh Center for the Arts. She composed a Choral piece called Rise (based on Maya Angelou's poem Still I Rise) and traveled to 11 cities in 14 months, performing the piece as a soloist with Gay Men's Choruses across the country. The piece is dedicated to Matthew Shepard's mother, Judy Shepard, who established the Matthew Shepard Foundation to carry on her son's legacy. Montgomery is also the Director of Education and Outreach for the American Songbook Association. During the pandemic lockdown period, she created WithCarolyn, a series of Virtual Culinary, Cocktail and Cabaret Classes that she currently teaches five days a week. Most important, Carolyn is a Mom to son Eli (16) and two Jack Russell Terrier rescue pups, Chipmunk (17) and George (11). They all live on the west side of Manhattan and divide their free time between the Adirondack Mountains and Cape Cod. Follow on Twitter: https://twitter.com/CMontGoesThere

Judy Shepard is the founding president of the Matthew Shepard Foundation Board of Directors, and served as its first executive director as well, from 1999 to 2009. In October 1998, Judy and Dennis Shepard lost their 21-year-old son, Matthew, to a murder motivated by anti-gay hate. Judy and Dennis decided to turn their grief into action, establishing the Matthew Shepard Foundation to carry on Matthew’s legacy. In her continuing role as board president, she travels across the nation speaking to audiences about making this world a more accepting place for everyone, regardless of race, religion, ethnicity, sex, gender identity and expression, or sexual orientation. Judy has also written a memoir, ‘The Meaning of Matthew’. Originally trained as a teacher, she holds a degree in Secondary Education from the University of Wyoming where she later pursued some post-graduate studies. Her word of the day is ALLY. CONNECT WITH JUDY: I: @mattshepardfdn T: @WyoJudyShepard CW: This episode contains discussion of hate crime and homophobia. #AnthemsPride is a collection of 30 original manifestos, speeches, stories, poems and rallying cries written and voiced by exceptional LGBTQI+ contributors and allies. It was created, sound designed and executive produced by Hana Walker-Brown with producers Bea Duncan, Jaja Muhammad and production assistant Rory Boyle. The artwork is by Mars West. Resources: Matthew Shepard Foundation Amplifying the story of Matthew Shepard to inspire individuals, organizations and communities to embrace the dignity and equality of all people. Website: https://www.matthewshepard.org Galop Hate crime, domestic abuse and sexual violence support service for LGBT+ people Helpline: 0800 999 5428 (Monday-Friday, 10am-5pm / Wednesday & Thursday, 10am-8pm) Website: http://www.galop.org.uk Victim Support Independent charity offering support for people affected by crime or traumatic events. Phone: 0808 1689 111 (24/7) Website: https://www.victimsupport.org.uk (24/7 live chat) Cruse Bereavement Care The leading national charity for bereaved people in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Phone: 0808 808 1677 (Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm) Website: www.cruse.org.uk

“As a young person, I feel it necessary to show the great nation that we live in that there doesn't need to be this kind of violence and hatred in our world.” Judy Shepard.  Hello and welcome to episode thirty three of Once Upon a Nightmare. In this episode I discuss the tragic case of Matthew Shepard. I invited Seth from the Thanks for Coming Podcast to help me discuss not only what happened to Matthew, but also discuss the struggles individuals from the LBGTQ+ community face for simply being who they are.  Thanks For Coming Podcast https://linktr.ee/tfcpod Also listen out for my podcast recommendation! Morbidology  Thank you for listening and don’t forget to rate and review on iTunes. For updates, reviews and behind the scenes info follow via one or all of the below options: Instagram – @onceuponanightmarepodcast Twitter - @anightmarepod Letterboxd - @anightmarepod Facebook - Once Upon a Nightmare Email - onceuponanightmarepod@gmail.com Part of the Podbreed Network:https://www.podbreed.com/ ( https://www.podbreed.com/) Music by: Darren Curtis Music - https://www.darrencurtismusic.com/battle-music Dark Anthem G Sources https://www.matthewshepard.org/about-us/our-story/ (https://www.matthewshepard.org/about-us/our-story/) https://www.britannica.com/biography/Matthew-Shepard (https://www.britannica.com/biography/Matthew-Shepard) https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2txui8 (https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2txui8) https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/two-decades-after-matthew-shepard-s-death-lgbtq-community-still-n919401 (https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/two-decades-after-matthew-shepard-s-death-lgbtq-community-still-n919401) https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-45968606 (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-45968606)  https://www.justice.gov/hatecrimes/laws-and-policies (https://www.justice.gov/hatecrimes/laws-and-policies)

10/13/2020.  Judy Shepard to ACB, Buttigieg on SCOTUS, OutSpoken conservative "PRIDE" & Trump PRIDE Rallies, Honoring Monica Roberts, 11-Year-Old Lesbian Criminal, Lockdown Fatigue, Candidates Theresa Greenfield & Roger Montoya, Chastity Cage Bug, Altar Threesome & more.

Welcome to Majority.FM's AM QUICKIE! Brought to you by justcoffee.coop TODAY'S HEADLINES: Centrist Democrats in the Senate have convinced Joe Biden to limit how many people will qualify for direct $1,400 payments in his pandemic relief bill. But progressive members of Congress are still pushing for expanded eligibility. Meanwhile, a new study shows how hard the nonprofit sector has been hit by the economic fallout of the pandemic. For smaller arts organizations in particular, the news is very bad. And lastly, a hate crimes bill has been introduced in the Wyoming legislature. It’s one of three or four states that still don’t have such a law on the books. THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW: Here’s what’s new with the incredible shrinking pandemic relief bill. President Biden has agreed to narrow eligibility for a new round of $1,400 stimulus payments in his $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill, under pressure from moderate Senate Democrats, the Washington Post reports. Biden and Senate Democratic leaders are scrambling to keep their caucus united since they cannot lose a single Democrat in the fifty-fifty Senate with Republicans united against the legislation. The Post reports that under the changes agreed to by Biden and Senate Democratic leadership, individuals earning $75,000 per year and couples earning $150,000 would still receive the full $1,400-per-person benefit. However, the benefit would disappear for individuals earning more than $80,000 annually and couples earning more than $160,000. That means singles making between $80,000 and $100,000 and couples earning between $160,000 and $200,000 would be newly excluded from a partial benefit under the revised structure Biden agreed to. About twelve million fewer adults and five million fewer kids would get the stimulus payments under the new Biden-Senate compromise. Centrist Senate Democrats had initially pushed for even more aggressive restrictions on the stimulus payments, according to the Post. Senior Democratic officials had at one point considered dropping the full benefit for those making more than $50,000 per year, a change they ultimately abandoned after a backlash led by Senate Finance Chair Ron Wyden of Oregon and Senate Budget Chair Bernie Sanders of Vermont. Presuming the Senate passes the package later this week, it would still have to go back to the House for final approval. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York said QUOTE I don’t understand the political or economic wisdom in allowing Trump to give more people relief checks than a Democratic administration ENDQUOTE. AOC, you are not alone there. Many Nonprofits Face Closure Here are some more stark numbers for you. More than one-third of US nonprofits are in jeopardy of closing within two years because of the financial harm inflicted by the pandemic, the Associated Press reports. That figure comes from a study released yesterday by the philanthropy research group Candid and the Center for Disaster Philanthropy. The study’s findings underscore the perils for nonprofits and charities whose financial needs have escalated over the past year, well in excess of the donations that most have received. The researchers analyzed how roughly three hundred thousand nonprofits would fare under twenty scenarios of varying severity, the AP reports. The worst-case scenario led to the closings of thirty eight percent of the nonprofits. Even the scenarios seen as more realistic resulted in closures well into double digit percentages. Among the most vulnerable nonprofits, the study said, are those involved in arts and entertainment, which depend on ticket sales for most of their revenue, cannot significantly their reduce expenses and don’t typically hold much cash. Other studies have concluded that smaller arts and culture groups, in particular, are at serious risk. Californians for the Arts, for example, surveyed arts and culture nonprofits in the state and found that about sixty four percent had shrunk their workforces. And a report last week from New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli found that employment in New York City’s arts, entertainment and recreation sector tumbled sixty six percent during 2020. The AP says that while arts and entertainment groups may be at particular risk, nonprofits from all sectors are in danger. According to the study, the District of Columbia was expected to lose the most nonprofits per capita, followed by Vermont and North Dakota. We’re gonna need a bigger relief bill to save this sector of the economy. Wyoming Tackles Hate Crimes Progress moves slowly but it is still moving. Wyoming lawmakers on Tuesday introduced a bill aimed at combating hate crimes in the state, CBS News reports. It is one of three remaining states with no laws against bias-motivated crimes on its books. The move comes after a push by advocates in the state where gay college student Matthew Shepard was killed in 1998. More than two decades later, Wyoming remains without a hate crimes law even though the 2009 federal anti-hate crime law bears Shepard's name. Though Wyoming's tagline is The Equality State, named so for being the first to grant women the right to vote, the state is known to many outsiders for Shepard's brutal murder. Shepard's mother Judy Shepard told CBS News that while she was traveling several years ago wearing a Wyoming shirt, she was asked, Isn't that where that gay kid was murdered? Pressure has been increasing on lawmakers in Wyoming and the two other states that remain without hate crime legislation – South Carolina and Arkansas, where bills have been introduced. Some advocates also include Indiana on the list of states without hate crime laws, calling a law passed in that state in 2019 problematically broad. Some similar laws in other states mandate enhanced sentences for those convicted of a crime motivated by bias. Wyoming's proposed legislation, however, would not mandate enhanced sentences. CBS reports that the bill will likely be assigned to the legislature's judiciary committee, where a hearing is expected in the coming weeks, said Democratic Representative Cathy Connolly, a co-sponsor of the bill. While questions remain to be hashed out – including over the scope of incidents that law enforcement should be required to report – Connolly said the introduction of the bill is a big deal. Especially for marginalized people in The Equality State. AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES: In his first public remarks since a sexual harassment scandal enveloped his administration, Governor Andrew Cuomo said yesterday that he was embarrassed by his actions and apologized, but said that he would not resign, the New York Times reports. He also said he has learned, adding QUOTE I will be the better for this experience ENDQUOTE. Well then, congratulations are in order! The far-right party Alternative für Deutschland will be spied on by Germany’s intelligence agency under suspicion of posing a threat to democracy, the Guardian reports. It is currently the largest opposition party in parliament. The state intel agency is now able by law to monitor the phones of AfD members and spy on its activities as a suspected extreme rightwing organisation. Suspected? Surely it’s confirmed by now. The Department of Homeland Security and the FBI sent a joint intelligence bulletin to law enforcement agencies late Tuesday warning that some domestic groups have discussed plans to take control of the US Capitol and remove Democratic lawmakers on or about March 4 – today – according to NBC News. Also yesterday, the Capitol Police said it has uncovered a possible plot to breach the Capitol by a militia group. The House canceled its session today out of caution. Supporters of the QAnon conspiracy theory have set this as the date they believe Donald Trump will return to office. Good luck with that, jabronis. Myanmar security forces dramatically escalated their crackdown on protests against last month’s coup, killing at least thirty-four protesters yesterday in several cities, according to the AP. That is highest daily death toll since the February 1st takeover. Videos from yesterday also showed security forces firing slingshots at demonstrators, chasing them down and even brutally beating an ambulance crew. Solidarity with the people of Myanmar. That’s all for the AM Quickie. Join us this afternoon on the Majority Report. MAR 4, 2021 - AM QUICKIE HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner WRITER - Corey Pein PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn

With the participation of special co-hosts Richard Marion (British Columbia, Canada) and Tom Babcock (Orlando, Florida)! Matthew Wayne Shepard (December 1, 1976 – October 12, 1998) was a gay American student at the University of Wyoming who was beaten, tortured, and left to die near Laramie on the night of October 6, 1998. He was taken by rescuers to Poudre Valley Hospital in Fort Collins, Colorado, where he died from severe head injuries six days later. Suspects Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson were arrested shortly after the attack and charged with first-degree murder following Shepard's death. Significant media coverage was given to the murder and what role Shepard's sexual orientation played as a motive for the commission of the crime. The prosecutor argued that McKinney's murder of Shepard was premeditated and driven by greed. McKinney's defense counsel countered by arguing that he had intended only to rob Shepard but killed him in a rage when Shepard made a sexual advance toward him. McKinney's girlfriend told police that he had been motivated by anti-gay sentiment, but later recanted her statement, saying that she had lied because she thought it would help him. Both McKinney and Henderson were convicted of the murder, and each of them received two consecutive life sentences. Shepard's murder brought national and international attention to hate crime legislation at both the state and federal level. In October 2009, the United States Congress passed the Matthew Shepard – James Byrd Jr Hate Crimes Legislation (commonly the "Matthew Shepard Act" or "Shepard/Byrd Act" for short), and on October 28, 2009, President Barack Obama signed the legislation into law. Following her son's murder, Judy Shepard became a prominent LGBT Rights activist and established the Matthew Shepard Foundation. Shepard's death has inspired films, novels, plays, songs, and other works. Tonight, on Pride Connection, BPI Members Richard Marion and Tom Babcock co-host with us to remember Matthew Shepard. Both Richard and Tom bring to the table first-hand knowledge of the case; they have both been strong LGBT-rights advocates; and they have personal experiences in this arena. Richard and Tom will also discuss with us how the LGBTQ community is still being the target of many hate crimes in the United States and in other parts of the world. As always, Pride Connection welcomes your comments, requests, and suggestions. You can reach us at: membership@blindlgbtpride.org

We discuss the legacy of RBG, previous guest Lilly Ledbetter, and round out the trifecta of female icons by speaking with Judy Shepard, founding president of the Matthew Shepard Foundation, on her inspiring work championing social justice, diversity awareness and education, and equality for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.

Originally released: April 27, 2009 Episode 1 of Nathan OUTloud is a brief introduction to the host of Nathan OUTloud, Nathan Treanor. Nathan shares part of his coming out story, including the first time he ever told anyone he is gay. Nathan also shares when he came out to his mother. In the news: Nathan talks about the tragic news of two 11 year-old boys who, after being bullied and tormented in school, needlessly took their lives. The heartbreaking stories of Jaheem Herrera and Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover shed light on the importance of anti-bullying curriculum in schools. Also, the Human Rights Campaign released the new “Welcoming Schools” Program – information at http://www.hrc.org/welcomingschools/ (hrc.org) Spotlight Artist: Maria Daines and her song “The Staffie Song”. As a dog lover, Nathan shares a song about the importance of dog rescue and how every animal deserves a chance at a loving home. Music courtesy of the http://music.podshow.com/ (Podsafe Music Network). Also check out http://www.maria-daines.com/ (Maria Daines) online. Take Action: Congress is currently considering Federal Hate Crimes legislation that would expand protections to LGBT Americans. Learn more at http://www.fighthatenow.org/ (fighthatenow.org) – where you will be able to contact your members of Congress and also share a moving video by Judy Shepard. Judy's son Matthew was killed 10 years ago in a brutal attack because he was gay. Since Matthew's death, Judy has not given up the fight to ensure that Matthew's death was not in vain and that current Hate Crimes protections are expanded to include members of the LGBT community. Follow the podcast on twitter http://twitter.com/nathanOUTloud (@nathanOUTloud). To share your coming out story on a future episode of Nathan OUTloud, email here. Come OUT | Be OUT | Live OUTloud 3b9ND8yTuk7soDFbsUvI Support this podcast

Rory explores The Gay Panic Defence, which has been brought to the headlines once again, following the Netflix series Trial By Media. He discusses why this defence is still legal in 40 states with St. Edward’s University professor, Carsten Andresen. He also speaks to Judy Shepard, the mother of hate crime victim Matthew Shepard, and Executive VP of The Matthew Shepard Foundation, Jason Marsden.

Matthew Todd, UK writer-journalist talks with Emmy Winner Charlotte Robinson host of OUTTAKE VOICES™ about his exquisite new coffee table book “PRIDE: The Story Of The LGBTQ Equality Movement” published by Weldon Owen. The book documents the milestones in our fight for global LGBTQ equality from before Stonewall to the victories of activists over the last five decades that have led to the gradual acceptance of LGBTQ people in politics, sports and the media. It also chronicles the winning landmark court cases including marriage equality and significant legislation that have furthered our basic civil rights. This pictorial and wide-reaching text takes you on a journey covering key figures, heroes, notable moments, events and breakthroughs in a wealth of rare images and documents as well as providing moving essays from vital witnesses throughout our modern day movement. Though we still have a long way to go to achieve full equality, “PRIDE: The Story Of The LGBTQ Equality Movement” is a unique and comprehensive account of the ongoing challenges facing our LGBTQ community and a celebration of civil rights that have been won for many of us as a result of the sacrifices and passion of this mass movement. The book includes personal testimonies from many relevant activists and allies including Judy Shepard mother of Matthew Shepard, legendary photographer Nan Goldin, Reverend Troy Perry founder of the Metropolitan Community Church, novelist playwright essayist Darryl Pinckney, Jake Shears of The Scissor Sisters, activist and former Pride Award-winner Jonathan Blake, New Zealand politician Georgina Beyer the world’s first openly transgender Mayor and transgender member of Parliament, Deborah Brin one of the world’s first openly gay Rabbis and many more. We talked to Todd about his passion and inspiration for creating “PRIDE: The Story Of The LGBTQ Equality Movement” and his spin on our LGBTQ issues. Matthew Todd is a multi award winning writer and previous editor of “Attitude” a British gay lifestyle magazine from 2008 to 2016. His first book "Straight Jacket - Overcoming Society's Legacy of Gay Shame" was shortlisted for the Polari Prize in 2017 and was voted winner of the Boyz LGBT Book of the Year Award. His play “Blowing Whistles” has been performed in the UK, Australia and the United States. Todd’s fabulous new work “PRIDE: The Story Of The LGBTQ Equality Movement” (Weldon Owen) is currently available online and in stores.For More Info: matthewtodd.net LISTEN: 500+ LGBTQ Chats @OUTTAKE VOICES 

If you grew up in the 90s, Matthew Shepard's face is something that has probably stayed with you since his murder on October 6, 1998. Matthew was lured from a bar in Laramie, Wyoming by Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson. Their intent was to pose as gay men and rob Matthew. What occurred was much more than robbery. They used a .357 magnum revolver to beat him to death, tying him to a buck fence and leaving him to die for 18 hours in the freezing Wyoming cold. His death was a scream for stronger legislation of hate crimes, particularly against the LGBTQ+ community. In Part 1, we discuss Matt's life, his murderer's lives and his brutal assault. Check out these sources: Matt Shepard Is A Friend Of Mine (https://www.amazon.com/Matt-Shepard-Friend-Michele-Josue/dp/B015XMK0T0/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1ESVY2YO36QUE&dchild=1&keywords=matt+shepard+is+a+friend+of+mine&qid=1592620962&sprefix=Matt+Shepard%2Caps%2C188&sr=8-1) The Meaning of Matthew by Judy Shepard (https://www.amazon.com/Meaning-Matthew-Murder-Laramie-Transformed-ebook/dp/B002N83GU8/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=Matthew+shepard&qid=1592620889&sr=8-2) Thanks to our sponsors! SimpliSafe Head to SimpliSafe.com/MORBID and get FREE SHIPPING and A 60 DAY MONEY BACK GUARANTEE and to make sure they know that our show sent you. Molekule For 10% off your first air purifier order, visit Molekule.com and at checkout enter Morbid. HelloFresh Go to HelloFresh.com/morbid60 and use code morbid60 to get $60 off your first three weeks, including free shipping on your first box. Additional restrictions apply, please visit HelloFresh.com for more details.

Mother's Day is next Sunday, so this week on "Now I've Heard Everything we're featuring interviews with and about mothers. Today, a loving and devoted mother who suffered a devastating and very public loss. On October 6, 1998, a 22-year-old gay University of Wyoming student named Matthew Shepard was beaten and tortured, and died six days later. Two other young men, Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson, were later arrested, tried, and convicted in Matthew Shepard's death. After her son's murder, Ju Shepard took on a new role as advocate for the LGBT community.

Adult temper tantrums seem like the norm now— especially in DC. How should or do you respond? The IRS admits it is easier to audit poor people and blames Congress for lack of needed funding to audit the wealthy. Finally, Dennis and Judy Shepard send a letter to AG Barr calling out the Trump Administrations hypocrisy related to the treatment of LGBTQ Americans. The Shepard's son, Matthew, was killed in a horrific hate crime in 1998 and they have been staunch supporters of LGBTQ rights. Apple Podcasts: apple.co/1WwDBrC Spotify: spoti.fi/2pC19B1 iHeart Radio: bit.ly/2n0Z7H1 Tunein: bit.ly/1SE3NMb Stitcher: bit.ly/1N97Zqu Google Podcasts: bit.ly/1pQTcVW Pandora: https://pdora.co/2pEfctj YouTube: bit.ly/1spAF5a Also follow Tim and John on: Facebook: www.facebook.com/focusgroupradio Twitter: www.twitter.com/focusgroupradio Instagram: www.instagram.com/focusgroupradio

The 20 years since Matthew Shepard's death have been transformative for his mother, Judy. Plus: we talk to Samira Wiley, who appeared in an anniversary production of The Laramie Project. — Judy Shepard is president of the Matthew Shepard Foundation. — Moisés Kaufman is founder and artistic director of the Tectonic Theater Project; he co-wrote and directed the play The Laramie Project. — Samira Wiley is an actor best known for her work on Orange is the New Black and The Handmaid's Tale. — You can stream the film version of The Laramie Project on HBO. — Special thanks to Christina Russo and Maxim Ibadov. Original music by Jeremy Bloom with additional music by Alexander Overington ("Inter C") and Broke For Free ("The Great"). If you want to join our "I've Been Meaning To Tell You..." Project, head to nancypodcast.org/tell. Support our work! Become a Nancy member today at Nancypodcast.org/donate.  

The 20 years since Matthew Shepard's death have been transformative for his mother, Judy. Plus: we talk to Samira Wiley, who appeared in an anniversary production of The Laramie Project. From Laramie: A Legacy, a reading of The Laramie Project (Daniel Rader) — Judy Shepard is president of the Matthew Shepard Foundation. — Moisés Kaufman is founder and artistic director of the Tectonic Theater Project; he co-wrote and directed the play The Laramie Project. — Samira Wiley is an actor best known for her work on Orange is the New Black and The Handmaid’s Tale. — You can stream the film version of The Laramie Project on HBO. Special thanks to Christina Russo and Maxim Ibadov. Episode scoring by Jeremy Bloom, Alexander Overington, and Broke For Free ("The Great"). Theme by Alexander Overington. Support our work! Become a Nancy member today at Nancypodcast.org/donate.

The murder of gay student Matthew Shepard in October 1998 shocked America. After a decade of campaigning, his mother, Judy Shepard, convinced lawmakers to change hate crime legislation, outlawing attacks based on gender, disability, gender identity, or sexual orientation. Claire Bowes has been speaking to Judy Shepard.Photo: Matthew Shepard (Handout image from the Matthew Shepard Foundation)

The murder of gay student Matthew Shepard in October 1998 shocked America. After a decade of campaigning, his mother, Judy Shepard, convinced lawmakers to change hate crime legislation, outlawing attacks based on gender, disability, gender identity, or sexual orientation. Claire Bowes has been speaking to Judy Shepard. Photo: Matthew, with his parents, Judy and Dennis, on holiday at Yellowstone National Park. (Courtesy of the Matthew Shepard Foundation)

#99: Are We Innately Driven to Serve Others With Matt Kidd Jenn T Grace:              You are listening to the Personal Branding for the LGBTQ Professional Podcast, episode 99.   Introduction:              Welcome to the Personal Branding for the LGBTQ Professional Podcast; the podcast dedicated to helping LGBTQ professionals and business owners grow their business and careers through the power of leveraging their LGBTQ identities in their personal brand. You'll learn how to market your products and services both broadly, and within the LGBTQ community. You'll hear from incredible guests who are leveraging the power of their identity for good, as well as those who haven't yet started, and everyone in between. And now your host. She teaches straight people how to market to gay people, and gay people how to market themselves. Your professional lesbian, Jenn - with two N's - T Grace.   Jenn T Grace:              Well hello and welcome to episode 99 of the Personal Branding for the LGBTQ Professional Podcast. I am your host, Jenn Grace, and I am almost stunned that we are at episode 99 and the next episode will obviously be 100, that will be the last one of 2016 and it's almost a big monumental time to be hitting this 99th episode before going into the triple digits.                                     So as I have been doing for the last couple of months, I have another interview to share with you and it's with Matt Kidd, and he is the Executive Director of Reaching Out MBA which is an organization that is focused on LGBTQ folks who are pursuing MBAs, and we really just had an amazing conversation that kind of went back and forth between LGBT culture and some of the challenges that we see, and personal brands, and how people can be change makers, and advocates, and really it was just a very fascinating conversation to be had. So per usual I will not dilly dally here with the introduction and we can just dive right into today's interview with Matt, and I will see you in episode 100, but for today please enjoy this interview with Matt Kidd, and if you would like to find information about this episode, see a transcript, any of that, you can do so at www.JennTGrace.com/99 for episode number 99. Thanks so much and enjoy the interview.                                     Okay so I want to start off with just having you give the listeners a little bit of a background about yourself, maybe what you've done in the past, what your current position is, and then we can just kind of dive into other interesting topics from there. So why don't you just kind of take it away.   Matt Kidd:                  Sure so my name is Matt Kidd. I'm currently the Executive Director of an LGBT organization called Reaching Out. A lot of people know us also as ROMBA, and the organization itself is effectively the now global organization for LGBT MBA both students and professionals. And it's something that I've been in this role now for a little over three years, but prior to that was on the board. So I've been involved with Reaching Out now probably for- gosh going on about eight years. But I would say for me being part of kind of the LGBT community is something that has gone on really since I was a teenager in some ways, which I can talk a little bit about later, and I have to say as I came to this role it really was because I was at a time in my life where I started really thinking about what difference can we make in the world? To be honest I'd gone through my own MBA business school experience, I was working at Tech Startup, and about two, three years after I'd been at that company I was number one kind of getting a little bit bored and I was thinking about what do I want to do next? But number two, I actually lost my mother and so at that point I'd lost both my parents. And when you go through something like that I think it forces a lot of self-reflection and kind of thinking about what is your purpose in the world? Why are you doing this? What really matters? And I think that was one of those moments. And so it was kind of probably about a year after that, that the organization was going through this big change where it went from what was effectively an all-volunteer model with a volunteer board, and using students to run basically one event to an organization that really wanted to have a larger scope, wanted to run year round, and [Inaudible 00:04:33]. And I vividly remember we were sitting in a room with some consultants that we were working with and one of them pulled me aside and said, "Hey would you consider raising your hand for this," and my gut reaction was, "No that's ridiculous." And then I think I went home and thought about it, and a couple weeks went by, and I just kept coming back to it. It was this really interesting part of me, 'What can we do with this? Like if I did this, why would it be interesting and why should I do this?' And it all kind of came back to in a weird way- I view my time at Reaching Out really in a weird way is working with some sort of startup or something entrepreneurial because I came in and it had been this established product which was this conference that's been going on now for nineteen years, but it really didn't do much else. And so it kind of gave me a blank slate to come and then say, 'Well what do we want to do? What impact do we want to do?' And as soon as I kind of had some of the conversations that made it clear that we really would be able to move forward quickly rather than kind of in the traditional slow nonprofit way, I threw my hat into the ring and lo and behold three years later we've built up a staff of three, we're doing probably close to twenty events a year, we have a scholarship program that's giving away over a million dollars a year to LGBTQ students in business school. So we've been able to accomplish a lot, but that's kind of how I got to where I am, and kind of a little bit about what's going on in my world.   Jenn T Grace:              Do you think with your kind of gut reaction of like, 'Oh hell no I don't want to go down this path,' and then somehow that being the path that you end up on, do you think that like if you look back it's just kind of really kind of changed the trajectory of your ability to make- create purpose and change kind of in your life?   Matt Kidd:                  Yeah I do. The reality is I probably won't be in this role forever. Some people do ask me, "What are you going to do next?" And I think in a weird way this role has made me really reflect on what would make me happy in life, and what would not? And I think some of that has to do with the type of organizations that you work for. I think there's something inherently nice about working- for me at least, for a small to mid-sized organization rather than kind of a giant corporation. I think it tells you a little bit about kind of the impact that you can have. I think particularly when you're talking about a nonprofit or a v-corp or something like that, then I think in those cases you're doing more than just having an impact on the business line, you're having an impact on kind of the greater community. I think at this point- and I think it's- I alluded to this before, I think it's been true really since I was much younger, but now I consciously think about what can I be doing to make somebody else's life better at the end of the day? And I think some of that comes from mission driven work, and where you work, but some of that just becomes frankly how you treat people, how you talk, how you position yourself, and I think being in a role like this makes me hyper conscious of that and that's something that regardless of what I'm doing next, I that's had just had a tremendous impact really on my life. And like I said it can be just something as simple as how are you talking to other people? Are you kind of taking into consideration their priorities, their needs, how can you help them, how might they be at a disadvantage to you? Every conversation now in some form, that goes through my thinking.   Jenn T Grace:              Yeah and I know that you have kind of information from early back as we were talking before we hit record, do you think that for people to come to the realization that like their purpose in life is to really kind of serve others? Because that's really at the crux of what you're talking about, is serving others. Do you think that it requires some kind of pivotal moment to cause that? Or do you think that's innate to some people? Like what are your thoughts on that, and then of course how did you realize that about yourself?   Matt Kidd:                  Yeah I think it's ultimately at the end of the day in everyone. I think there probably are varying degrees of it, but I do think it takes something in somebody's life really to kind of recognize it. And so what we were talking about before we recorded today is October 12th and so it's the eighteenth anniversary of the murder of Matthew Shepard, and I really vividly remember an experience when I was probably a junior or so in high school, and this was in Memphis, Tennessee so fairly deep south in kind of the late nineties, and I remember this experience, and I apologize for my language here but there was a teacher who kind of came in and basically said, "That faggot deserved it. He probably had Aids anyway." And you know, at the time I was not really out at that point, I would say I was exploring my sexual identity in some capacity and I think some people probably suspected, but I just remember that just first of all making me feel so little, but then I think the more I reflected on it, it started to make me angry. And a couple years ago I had the pleasure of sitting down with Judy Shepard, and we were talking, and my comment to her was the murder is obviously horrible, and I think everybody would go back in time and change it if they could, but there is a silver lining that comes of horrible incidents like this, and that's I think it gets a lot of people to reflect on their own purpose and kind of have a reaction. And so I would say if you look at a lot of my peers, particularly in the LGBT social justice faith now, a lot of them would say a moment to them where they realized that this was something that was important to them, something that moved them that made them care, was Matthew Shepard’s death. And so for a lot of us, kind of my generation, so people who are in their mid-thirties, I think that was a moment that sparked this idea of, 'This is wrong and I want to change that.' Now how people went about doing that, I think it takes a lot of different paths. And sometimes you'll see have you multiple encounters, like for me a second spark really was my loss of both my parents, that a moment where for me it was like, 'Well why am I on this earth? Like what am I meant to do?' And so I think you do have those points, and I think it's what you decide to do with them that really matters.   Jenn T Grace:              So I have a friend of mine who's writing a book, and it's really about what you're talking about of really kind of taking that challenging situation and turning it into that silver lining. And there's a whole concept around it called post-traumatic growth, and it's really that we grow from those really traumatic experiences that we kind of face. Do you think- because I too am in my mid-thirties looking back at Matthew Shepard, and that being in 1998, and I was also a junior in high school. I remember it really vividly as I think most people our age do, and do you think that there- because I think that Judy Shepard really, really made it her life's mission to use that incident and her experience as a grieving mother to really be a catalyst in so many ways across the board for LGBT equality. Do you think that because it was 1998, if we look back Ellen had come out a couple of years before, LGBT was so not on the forefront as it is now. If we look at something like what happened in Orlando in June, do we look at that as possibly one of those pivotal moments for people now? Like because I know for us, like I definitely- of course we all had a reaction to Orlando, but do we think that that is actually one of those defining moments for maybe the youth? Especially as you- with reaching out working with students, I'm curious just kind of your perspective and hearing stories that you might have heard from any of the students that you work with.   Matt Kidd:                  Yeah you know I think at some level it did, I think that there are certainly differences kind of as you alluded to. In the nineties, LGBT- obviously being LGBT, being out, much less acceptable than it is now. And I think in many ways, Orlando in particular exposed people to this concept of we're still vulnerable. I think one of the things that I see in a lot of students, and it's a little bit horrifying for me to see some students who are kids now getting into the nineties, but some of them have never grown up in an age frankly without Internet, which I think for a lot of LGBT people kind of opened a community, opened kind of access to free communication that you might not otherwise have, and I think they've grown up in an environment thanks to people like Kevin Jennings where a lot of them have seen GSAs in their schools and stuff like that. And so they've always grown up in this environment where it's been acceptable, and I think that there's always this danger that people become a little bit complacent, and so I think it moved a lot of people to think, 'Okay there's still a lot of work to do.' Because I hate to say this, but let's be honest, the fact that not all states have workplace protection for example, it's actually not as sexy to at least a lot of my students because most of them are going to go work for corporations or multi-nationals who regardless of whether the state they're in has work protections or not, they're going to be protected by their companies. And so they're not really impacted by something like that so it's not as sexy. But this idea that there are people out there who want to do you harm, and it's like this in other places in the world, and that particularly is something that I think [Inaudible 00:14:00] people start to get with something like Orlando, I think it gets them to move, to act a little bit and it does spark something like that. I mean my true thought, and we saw this last week, we had our annual conference last weekend, and one of the speakers was this guy Darnell Moore, and Darnell Moore is kind of at the intersection of queer and Black Lives Matter as a lot of the Black Lives Matter are themselves. And he really talked about kind of the racial inequality within the LGBT movement and there were a lot of conversations following that, and I think that in a lot of ways Black Lives Matter is kind of the equivalent to some of the LGBT rights issues that we saw in the nineties, including the Matthew Shepard murder, and I think that's actually going to spark a lot of people towards just kind of general social justice movement. So it may not be precisely LGBT focused, but I think that there's a broad- if people are not being treated equally, that's a problem that people are starting to get in tune with, in part because of Black Lives Matter actually.   Jenn T Grace:              Yeah I feel like it's a collision- there's definitely a colliding of the Black Lives Matter movement and the LGBTQ movement all kind of boiling to a point at the same time, which if we look back just from a historical context, obviously I think it goes without saying that the Black Lives Matter should not be where it's at right now, this should not even be a movement currently. And I think there's a lot of power in the two communities trying to kind of raise one another up. I'm sure there's plenty of problematic areas too of we're all trying to fight for the same thing, but I think more often than not there's definitely a synergy, and a harmony if you would even want to call it that, of it's just injustice across the board, equality across the board, and I think that seeing these two different vantage points is actually I think helping one another in some degree from a media standpoint, or at least what's kind of being talked about because I think maybe the first time in history that these two things are so on the forefront every single day in any media outlet that you look at.   Matt Kidd:                  I'd add gender equality to that as well, I mean if you look at what's going on with the whole Trump campaign kind of implosion if you will, a lot of that centers around gender equality. And I think that the fact that people are more attuned to this- you really can't talk about people like that, you really have to treat people equally. If that wasn't going on I feel like unfortunately this wouldn't be as big of an issue as it's turned into over the last week or so.   Jenn T Grace:              Yeah I feel like there's just so much going on, the political landscape. By the time this airs I think we will be post-election, and who knows what exactly that will look like. Good God let's all hope here, and I'm sure anyone listening to this is on the same page, I can't imagine that I would have any listeners who were not, but who knows. In looking at just kind of maybe how even just the election cycle has kind of gone in terms of opening awareness to all of these mass amounts of issues. Because I really feel like there's a lot to attribute to the Trump campaign of just kind of raising the collective consciousness of, 'Wow there are so many problems.' Whether or not there's any kind of resolution to anything that's been brought up over the last year and a half, who knows? But it will be interesting to kind of see how this all plays out as it relates to any number of disenfranchised communities. Obviously LGBT being kind of the one that we're discussing.   Matt Kidd:                  Yeah the Trump campaign on LGBT has just been frankly very confusing, I mean to me as the whole Trump campaign has been. But I do think that it is kind of forcing people to really look at these issues, and the thing that at least is I guess slightly comforting to me is that this election cycle, LGBT has kind of taken a back seat in some ways. That to me means it's being used as less of a wedge issue, or kind of people view it as less of a wedge issue. I think that's promising. I think that there's also an inherent risk to that, which I alluded to in one of the last questions. I mean if you look at workplace equality, housing equality, transgender rights, look at what's going on in North Carolina; there's a lot that we really need to still accomplish. I think to the extent that people feel like, 'Okay we got marriage so we can move on,' which frankly is what a lot of people from the kind of straight- or to be more politically correct, non-LGBTQ population, that's how a lot of them view it is, 'Okay they got marriage last year so they're all set.' The reality is that's not true, but I also understand- kind of like you said the fact that we're still having some of these race inequality issues, essentially fifty years after we went through a whole racial equality movement, is just absolutely insane to me. And to me when people say, 'Well what do you think the importance of LGBT organizations-' like mine going forward are going to be. I think number one there's still stuff to accomplish, but number two, if we look at women's equality movement, and the black equality movement in particular, those are still ongoing, and to think that we're done and that we're going to politically at least get to a point where we're in the clear, we have nothing to worry about, I think it's naïve. I think the reality is we need to continue to be a pretty cohesive community, and I think that there are a lot of ways to do that, and the way that my organization kind of thinks about that is we want to bring these students together who are ultimately at the end of the day most likely to go onto jobs that are well-positioned within corporations, and pay well, and presumably they'll amass some sort of power, and I think one of the things we're really starting to focus on is how do we plant that seed that gets them to think about how they can number one, support each other, but more importantly, how can they support the rest of the LGBTQ community that may not have that same power, privilege and money? How can they essentially be giving back to their peers who are not as privileged as they are? And I think that's kind of the next wave of LGBT movement, is some of us are doing exceedingly well, particularly if you're a white, cisgender, gay male. Some people are not in as good a position, and how do we lift those people up?   Jenn T Grace:              Yeah I feel like you've kind of said so much because it's almost like you're helping enable an army that can kind of infiltrate from the inside of the corporate walls. And I think that with marriage equality, or even to some degree kind of the non-discrimination legislation that is still kind of in limbo, but the states that have adopted some kind of policies to protect their LGBT work force, so many of them have done so under the pressure of the corporations within those given states. So this seems like it's definitely the long term game strategy that you're kind of viewing, but it really- I think to some degree only takes one individual LGBT person, or even ally within an organization to really affect the type of change that's needed in order to continue to kind of propel things forward.   Matt Kidd:                  Yup absolutely, and I spent a day last week at the Out and Equal Workplace Summit, and a lot of the conversations that I was either part of or sat in, really kind of talked about how it's at the end of the day, particularly within corporations, getting stuff done, getting influence can come from two directions, it can come from kind of top down or bottom up, and it really takes passionate individuals to make that happen. The challenge that I think a lot of corporations right now face is that yes you're having these C-level folks, somebody like a Marc Benioff really step it up and taking some bold, bold actions. And you have some really passionate kind of lower level employees particularly amongst the millennials. But then you kind of have this layer of middle management, and frankly in my opinion to be middle management in a corporation sucks. You're getting a lot of pressure to perform from both ends, you can't take as many risks as you want, and so that is actually where I think a lot of kind of social justice movements within corporations kind of hit friction. It's not actually because of the C-suite, it's because of middle management, and it's essentially a fear, it's a fear for their own careers. And so I think as we think about who we want to influence and whom we should be talking to, I think those are kind of the key stakeholders. As we think about how we can leverage corporations in particular for this. I think yes, if you can get the attention of the CEO that's great, and it lets you make what I would essentially say are like headline plays. Something that you do that kind of is there for a day or two and then potentially goes away. To make something that's really long-lasting, you really need to build it into the culture, and a lot of that deals with middle management and influencing them. And so I think as we think about whom we should be talking to, and where we can make relationships personal, I think it's with those middle managers that really is key.   Jenn T Grace:              Yeah and I had an experience this past year. So I have a corporate client that's a Fortune 100, and I've been helping them- I did an LGBT training for their staff, just kind of marketing wise how to get their salespeople communicating in the right ways. And it was kind of a really fun experience, and that was- I don't know, maybe two years ago, and earlier this year they reached out to me to say, 'Hey we recognize that our CEI score is atrocious, and we see that we're not able to attract the right type of talent because it's just so bad and we're really putting people off.' And it's not that they weren't practicing it internally, but the number on the page was- it was a ten. So I worked with them, and their HR department, and their marketing department, and they had top down buy-in. So I was expecting kind of a Herculean effort to be had of like this is going to be a slog, we're working with an all-white male board of directors who isn't really all about diversity, let alone LGBT, and I was beyond shocked with how easy it moved through because the top executives were saying, 'This is something that's important to us, this is what we have to do.' But it's what you were saying, it was the mid-level manager which is usually where things kind of go to die when- any type of initiative. Like somehow it just doesn't either get passed going upward, or doesn't get below going downward, and there's always- obviously I'm making a broad generalization, but in my experience anyway, this is what I've seen happen. And it was because that mid-level management was like, 'You know what? This is important. It's important to us from a how do we position our business as- how do we position ourselves as the employer of choice?' And it's amazing that they managed to get themselves up to a ninety with just working with me for six months to really just kind of get their internal stuff together, because again they were already doing it, they just weren't really getting the credit for it. So I think that there's a lot to be said because it was one marketing person in that organization of like 18,000 employees who was saying, 'Our CEI sucks. We have to do something about it.' And she's an ally to the community no less, not even part of the community and was like, 'We have to fix this.' So I think that that should give hope and inspiration to a lot of the young people that are students and going through Reaching Out because they really do have an impact to change so many people, it's just I think if you time the messaging right, you time the conversation at the right time, you talk to the right people eventually- and I'm sure my particular contact was having these conversations for quite some time before I was able to actually come in and deliver, but it took her to stand up to be like, 'This isn't right. We need to fix this.' And I think that anyone has that true potential, but in a lot of ways I feel like the stars have to kind of align to really kind of see that such quick progress. Because especially in corporate it does take a lot of time to do anything usually.   Matt Kidd:                  Yeah, you know I think that there is increasing pressure on some of these organizations to really look at diversity numbers, metrics. When I throw around the word diversity, generally speaking I'm really talking about recruiting. I think if that pressure continues, and I think the pressure on that will actually fall on middle management, that by default is going to start making this part of the culture because people will think about, 'Well what can we be doing to affect this?' So I think setting some metrics in the hopes of companies essentially to task for you know, 'Gosh you really have no women.' I think it's a really important thing to do and I think over time that will start to change the culture of these organizations inherently as well.   Jenn T Grace:              Yeah and I think it's great that your focus is on MBA students because like you said, they are well-positioned by the time they hit the corporate workplace, so they automatically have an added layer perhaps credibility kind of bringing to the table, even if they are kind of in a very low position, you know that they're going to inevitably kind of succeed through the ranks based on what they're setting out to do.   Matt Kidd:                  Yeah absolutely.   Jenn T Grace:              So switching gears just a little bit and thinking about earlier on, you were talking about for you, Reaching Out is likely not going to be something that you're kind of tied to for life. Do you think about how- like right now is your name- I'm just going down a path of personal branding here. In looking at your name, are you finding that it's becoming synonymous with Reaching Out, or Executive Director of Reaching Out? And are you consciously trying to think about how to gradually- not disconnect because of course your name is everything and it certainly plays a huge factor into your role, but just kind of from a general standpoint of thinking of like, 'How would I actually unravel this down the road should I need to?'   Matt Kidd:                  Yeah, no I think that is top of mind for me lately. I think that actually if you look at a lot of LGBT organizations you have people who in a lot of ways, the person is interchangeable with the organization. So you look at like Out & Equal, and you think of Selisse Berry. You look at Out Leadership, you think of Todd Sears. And there are numerous cases like that, and unfortunately I think that there's a danger not only to the individual I think as they think about kind of their next chapter, although for some of these folks there may not be another chapter, they may decide to retire. But I think there's kind of a challenge for somebody like me where this certainly is- hopefully, knock on wood, not going to be the last chapter of my career, and so at one level you want to be associated with this but you don't want it to be your entire brand. I think there's also a danger for the organization because if it becomes so entrenched in kind of my personal brand, then the organization risks- if I'm not there and not present, people could say things like, 'Oh it was not the same as it was when Matt was there,' and I don't think that's good for the organization either. I increasingly as we do events and trying to do things to put a spotlight on our other stuff [Inaudible 00:2926] are students, because I think at the end of the day those are the people who are working equally as hard as I am, and maybe aren't always the face and voice but I think we should position them more to be in those kinds of situations. So there is a risk and I am thinking about how we slowly kind of unwind that a bit, and I think essentially lifting other people up is a huge component of that.   Jenn T Grace:              Yeah and I partially asked the question because in- everything is always clearer in hindsight, but when I was running the Connecticut LGBT Chamber of Commerce which I did for quite a number of years, and I was the Executive Director I remember that when I left that position the organization essentially imploded, and it took awhile to kind of regain its legs, and it certainly- this was a number of years ago at this point, so everything is on the up and up now, but it definitely was a significant hit because- and it wasn't anything that I intentionally had done from the onset. I wasn't trying to build the organization the Jenn way, it just happened to be a very small organization, not a lot of people. I relied heavily on volunteers and our board, and it was just a matter of we've got to do what we've got to do to get these events going, to get our members happy, and it just happened to be me that was always in front of people. So I think that that's a risk generally for anybody in a position like you're in now.   Matt Kidd:                  I think it's a risk for any kind of small to mid-sized organization really to be honest, and part of why we built out our staff is certainly because if we continued on the trajectory that when it was essentially just me as a staff member with some contractors and volunteers, I was going to burn out which would not benefit anyone, and we wouldn't be able to expand and grow the way that we wanted to. But the second is like it essentially puts the institutional memory of an organization really in that one person, and if you lose that one person, back when we were kind of that staff of one plus some contractors, if I got hit by a bus not that the organization wouldn't continue on, but that would be really problematic. Today knock on wood that's not going to happen, but if it did I have full faith that between kind of the staff embers that we have and how we've kind of been able to lift them up and then have them kind of take over some things, I think that frankly things would go on without missing much of a beat.   Jenn T Grace:              Yeah which is such a good sustainable place to be in, which is not always what is accessible to every organization because they're not really kind of thinking about secession planning and what lies ahead, or if this key person were to not be here for whatever number of reasons, how do we kind of carry on without skipping a beat. And I would imagine- my gut says, and based on people that I know in Executive Director positions for other nonprofits, I feel like most of them are not necessarily thinking that forward in terms of 'what would we do in the situation?' So rather it's a reactive versus proactive.   Matt Kidd:                  Yeah and you know I'll be honest, in the LGBT space in particular, I think we have a responsibility to start to think about secession planning, and the large reason actually is that if you look at the vast majority- not all, but the majority of LGBT social justice organizations, they're run by white cisgender gay men, and I don't think that that's the face of the movement going forward. And so I think we really need to kind of pause as a movement in general and think about how can we bring in the faces and the voices that maybe aren't heard as well right now, and put them into leadership roles? And I think we're really at an inflection point where it's time for those of us who- kind of going back to what I was saying before, are fairly privileged within the LGBTQ community, to lift up those who are not and make them heard, and I think that's one way that we can do that. And so I hope that as a lot of other LGBT organizations have [Inaudible 00:33:27] retire, or switch to something else, that that's something that they're starting to think about.   Jenn T Grace:              Yeah and so I'm curious to hear your thoughts, and if you've been paying attention to this at all, but I had someone from BuzzFeed reach out to me last week- and again we're recording this on October 12th, so whenever this does come out, it's obviously all a little bit in the past. But I had somebody reach out for my comment on the After Ellen platform kind of disbanding. So what you're talking about I think really kind of goes into that entirely of the face of the community is really gay, white, cisgender men, and we know that that is by far not the reality of the community. But when we look at something like a website, like After Ellen which was kind of a flagship type of lesbian driven centric platform and content generator for so many years. So for that to kind of no longer exist in the capacity that it did, and the reason being is that there just wasn't enough advertiser interest, it's almost like how do we combat that from recognizing that it's not just what this kind of stereotypical highly sought after demographic is, when we ourselves are kind of continuing to perpetuate that that is all there is when we know that that's not.   Matt Kidd:                  Yeah, no I do know what you mean. The After Ellen thing is frankly a little surprising to me. I think some of what they struggled with is the business model issue, but some of it is- and also from firsthand experience, one of the things that I'm really focused on and the organization is, is really frankly trying to drive more LBTQ into business school and business in general. And so we started an initiative about probably three or four years ago now that we call Out Women in Business, and we hold a conference in New York, and it's a challenging audience to attract. I think each year it gets a little bit better, and there are some people like Leanne Pittsford with Lesbians Who Tech, who have something really special and magical there, but I mean Leanne will even tell you, like for her trying to attract an audience sometimes is a challenge as well. And so that's kind of a community thing, and I think it all starts with kind of visible leadership, and I think slowly but surely with folks like Megan Smith for example, we are carving out a space and leadership examples for the LBTQ community in particular, so I think that that's kind of a key component to it. But there aren't a lot of sources. After Ellen was one, there are what, maybe a couple- three or four others that are significant that are left, and that's pretty shocking. And then you get into other pretty gay-focused media sources; like to me, Towleroad or something like that is frankly pretty gay-focused. So that is a disturbing thing when you consider the fact that particularly bisexual women I think are the majority of the LGBTQ community. And so that's one of these moments where we should pause and say, 'Are we really reflecting what's out there, and is that part of why something like After Ellen isn't failing, it's because there's a representation issue.'   Jenn T Grace:              Yeah I feel like it's interesting because if you look at just kind of general demographic data, it shows that women are more likely to be the primary purchasers of households. So even in just looking at that as women as a more influential audience for buying whatever it happens to be, it seems like it just doesn't add up. And then I think about it, and I wonder if gay men, or any male within the LGBTQ community, is it because there is a bigger sense of community of like actually gathering that makes it easier to see them as a demographic to reach versus women are far more just kind of blending in with the individual cultures in which they live, whether that's geography, or whether it's different areas of interest. It's just really fascinating. When I was talking to the woman at BuzzFeed, I was just saying like, 'This is my lesbian perspective, but you should probably reach out to a cisgender gay male and get their point of view as well because there's got to be some underlying thing that's kind of here, and I do get the question quite often of how do I target lesbians, or how do I find lesbians to market to? And most often my advice is you just have to market to them as women first typically, and then go from there and be inclusive in that approach. But that's not necessarily what's going to be really kind of sexy to an advertiser to say, 'Oh this is a demographic I should invest in.'   Matt Kidd:                  Yeah and you know, I think it goes back beyond just media. So if you look at a given city, and you look at like a nightlife scene for example, generally speaking you'll probably find a handful, probably three or four of what you would consider kind of 'gay bars,' and you might find one bar that caters towards LBTQ women. And I think that's there- I think it goes back to your clusters of people, you see them more visibly, and again I think the more that we can think about how we bring communities together, who's representing them; I think these are all really, really important things for the movement as we go forward, particularly with social justice organizations.   Jenn T Grace:              Yeah, absolutely. And do you see any kind of influence or impact on like the Reaching Out students? Because they are MBA focused, that obviously puts them in a different kind of track, but do you see that that's being another avenue for just kind of shedding light and awareness on all of this?   Matt Kidd:                  I think interestingly enough we're at the point where we even have cisgender men kind of saying, 'What can we do to be getting more women here?' So like it's becoming front of mind for people. I would say for us probably even as recently as five or six years ago, we were the white gay male conference. And you know, I looked at the metrics this year, it's getting better. It's still not there, I think we were slightly under 50% Caucasian, so that's in my mind kind of a good change, although I think a lot of that frankly is being driven by international students who are at business schools. But the number of women in these programs is picking up a little bit each year, but we're not talking- we're talking like a percent each year. So the difference between like 26% and 27% and we really need to be focusing on it. And for me, I mean this is one of my big passions, is how can we drive this and we're fortunate to have a board chair who is a lesbian identifying woman herself, and both of us feel very passionately about it so we've convinced everyone to really put some money behind our mouths on this. And I think we're slowly making progress, it's just not as fast as I think any of us would like, and to be honest we just haven't figured out the silver bullet. So I'll say if any of your listeners know, please feel free to reach out because this is something that- it's not that we don't want them in business school, we actually desperately want them and so frankly do the business schools. I think the challenge that we run into, number one is a little bit of marketing to them, which like you said I think it starts with just marketing to women in general, and I think it gets a little bit more specific. But the other thing is, as I talk to a lot of LBTQ women and say, 'Hey have you ever considered business school?' the responses are pretty much, 'No that's not something that's really top of mind,' and ultimately when you kind of keep pushing it comes down to they're not seeing a community like themselves so they feel like it's not a place for them to be. And so it's a little bit of chicken or egg, but we've got to tell them that, 'This is a place where you're wanted,' and frankly if we start talking about the trans community it gets even harder. I had a conversation with the Executive Director of Campus Pride probably about a month ago now, and he was saying when he talks to his trans students- so these are all undergrad students, he says, 'What do you want to do in the future?' He said it's maybe one in a hundred that's saying some form of business, and the rest of it is something that might be more in the social justice space, or arts space, or even legal, and the fact that this really isn't on their radar and they don't see it as a place for them is a big problem.   Jenn T Grace:              Yeah and I think it's more of a systemic issue that is much broader than LGBTQ. It really kind of stems from what children are exposed to, and what classes they are exposed to in their elementary schools for example, and just kind of going through and in Connecticut we have a lot of stem type of schools that are popping up. So if either of my children who are in third and fourth grade, if they were interested or showed any inclination toward that stuff, then we could absolutely kind of push them in that direction. But I feel like school is so watered down now that there's just- it's focused on like the bare necessities and not really exposing children, and middle or high school to all of the things that they could be. And I feel like- and Lord knows that is going to be a fight that is not going to be won anytime soon. But I feel like it really- there's just such a systemic issue at play, and the LGBTQ community is really just a microcosm of a bigger- of the community of everyone. So I think we just see the issues because we are such a concentrated microcosm of the larger kind of landscape that we're all operating in.   Matt Kidd:                  I agree. Totally agree.   Jenn T Grace:              Well it's already- we've already been chatting for 45 minutes which seems crazy at this point. But I would love to kind of ask you a final question and then just give you kind of free reign to tell everyone how to go about finding you.   Matt Kidd:                  Sure.   Jenn T Grace:              But my question would be if we're thinking about people who are listening to this, who may be business owners, maybe they're in a professional sphere, they're LGBTQ, they're trying to kind of make a first step, or a first foray into identifying and really kind of honing in on what's meaningful to them, and how that might translate into their own personal brand, or the positioning of what they're doing. Do you have anything that maybe you've learned through your career that might be helpful that could kind of shortcut that process for them?   Matt Kidd:                  Yeah I think what I have found kind of throughout my career is that- and I know this sounds kind of cliché, particularly for kind of any LGBTQ folks, but authenticity sells. By talking about stories that I've really gone through, and that's why I'll use something like my experience around the day when Matthew Shepard died makes it more relatable and it makes people kind of understand you and what you're doing a little bit better. And so I'll say from kind of a personal brand point of view, I'm one of these people that for the most part I'm a pretty open book and keep it that way. I think even about like social media. If a student wants to add me on Facebook, go for it because frankly at this point I live pretty authentically and intentionally so because it makes me more human and it makes me more real and it makes people more willing to collaborate and to connect with you. And so I think don't be afraid of that, don't try to hide that because I think the reality is it probably opens more doors than it closes at this point. So never forget that, and always just kind of go back to your roots and kind of what you care about. At the end of the day, that is what it's all about, and if you don't care about something you probably shouldn't be doing it.   Jenn T Grace:              I feel like that's such good wisdom. Really being mindful of what you stand for and just being transparent from the onset. It certainly will save you a lot of headache later.   Matt Kidd:                  Absolutely.   Jenn T Grace:              So for anyone who was inspired by this conversation and interested in connecting with you, how would you go about directing them to do that?   Matt Kidd:                  Yeah please. So Reaching Out is online at www.ReachingOutMBA.org. Please visit our website. If you're an MBA yourself, we do have an online community that you can join. It's on that website and it's called Reaching Out Connect, so it's our individual member platform, so we certainly encourage you to do that. If you're part of the LBTQ community, we certainly would welcome and love to have you with us at the Out Women in Business Conference in New York which will be March 31st of 2017. So certainly join us because like I said, we do want to bring that community together, and that is open to non-MBAs so you don't need an MBA to be there, and I would say less than half of the folks who are there have an MBA, so you're certainly welcome for that. And then people can always find me online, LinkedIn, Twitter and if you search very carefully you can find me on Facebook. I'm usually pretty open to adding people on any of the platforms so you can hear what I have to say about things, because like I said I am my authentic self out there.   Jenn T Grace:              That's awesome. Well thank you so much for spending some time today, and I feel like there's a lot that can be gained for the listeners from our conversation, so thank you for that.   Matt Kidd:                  Absolutely, thank you Jenn.   Jenn T Grace:              Thank you for listening to today's podcast. If there are any links from today's show that you are interested in finding, save yourself a step and head on over to www.JennTGrace.com/thepodcast. And there you will find a backlog of all of the past podcast episodes including transcripts, links to articles, reviews, books, you name it. It is all there on the website for your convenience. Additionally if you would like to get in touch with me for any reason, you can head on over to the website and click the contact form, send me a message, you can find me on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter all at JennTGrace. And as always I really appreciate you as a listener, and I highly encourage you to reach out to me whenever you can. Have a great one, and I will talk to you in the next episode.

Judy Sheppard the mother of Matthew-joins Robert Christian for this powerful interview. LGBT history, and more. Judy shares her thoughts and fond memories of her son Matthew. Share this podcast it is one of a kind

Electoral Politics in IOWA! On this episode of State of Belief, Interfaith Alliance’s weekly radio show and podcast, Rev. Welton Gaddy takes a closer look at electoral politics through the lens of the upcoming caucuses in Iowa, focusing on how local organizations are attempting to prepare for them. Donna Red Wing, executive director of OneIowa, the state’s leading LGBT organization, joins us to address her advocacy work in Iowa in the context of the caucuses, as well as her recent meeting with President Obama. Later, Rabbi and author Jay Michaelson will speak about his brand new book The Gate of Tears: Sadness and the Spiritual Path, and will offer some advice regarding living a better life. And, finally, we’ll take a look back in our archives and listen to part of Welton’s 2007 interview with the late Senator Edward Kennedy, followed by a conversation with Judy Shephard, mother of Matthew Shephard, who appeared on the show just weeks before the passage of the Matthew Shephard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, a historic piece of legislation that Senator Kennedy advocated for before his death. Iowa Caucuses Enter the National Spotlight The Iowa Caucuses are just months away, and are the first real- life test for presidential candidates as they prepare for the general election later in 2016. Traditionally, Iowa gets a significant amount of national media attention around the time of the caucus, accompanied by visits from the candidates themselves. OneIowa, the state’s leading LGBT organization, takes advantage of this spotlight every year to promote its advocacy work. Executive director Donna Red Wing has been closely following these electoral politics as the Iowa caucuses near, and recently met with President Obama. Donna joins our show to discuss the importance of her work in Iowa, and the nature of Iowa voters. Rabbi Jay Michaelson’s new book offers a fresh perspective on spirituality and happiness The work of Rabbi Jay Michaelson has been discussed a number of times on State of Belief. Fortunately for us, Jay has been willing to unveil a number of books from his diverse body of work on our show, and has an exciting new perspective to share in his latest work The Gate of Tears: Sadness and the Spiritual Path, which has been called, “A Stunning antidote to the plethora of ‘get happy’ guides.” Today on the show Jay will discuss his new book, and will offer his thoughts on the relationship between happiness and spirituality in our everyday lives. Tune in to hear Jay’s enlightening perspective on these topics! A Look Back: An Interview with Senator Ted Kennedy As we get closer to the 10th anniversary of State of Belief, we are revisiting some of our favorite interviews. This week, we rewind to a powerful interview with the late Senator Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts.  In the beginning of October 2007, the Senator appeared on this program as part of his long-term advocacy for a federal hate crimes law. It was less than a year later that Ted Kennedy was diagnosed with an incurable brain tumor. Senator Kennedy was a tireless fighter for a federal Hate Crimes Act. The final time that he was able to sponsor this legislation in 2009, he lived to see its passage in the Senate – but passed away before President Obama signed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act into law on October 25, 2009. Just weeks before that historic moment, Judy Shepard, the mother of Matthew Shepard was on State of Belief, and you’ll hear part of that October 3, 2009 conversation.

Join me Host Hezekiah L. Montgomery and my Co-Host Nichelle Johnson as we welcome Joi Ford of the Joyriffice Band to our show.  Tune in as we learn more about this phenomenal woman who's taken the art of writing children's educational songs to the next level. Joi Ford has been a school teacher in Upstate New York and Baltimore Maryland for 24 years. She holds a Master's degree in Special Education and a Bachelors degree in Education and Spanish. She is the proud mother of five beautiful children and two grandchildren, who sing with her. Her love of teaching and for music has lend itself to help shape her destiny to becoming a children songwriter and soon to be author of children books. It is no surprise that her love of music would lead her to form the Joyriffic Band in 2011, along with her key board player Mark Rose. She would later add to the group others singers such as Judy Shepard(2014), Cyrinna Amanfo, Neveah Harps, Jeremiah Harps and Zoe . Her musical songs teach and warm the hearts of children and adults alike. Her gift to write music has been influenced by artist such as Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Ella Jenkins, Hap Palmer and many other song writers from her childhood growing up in Ossining New York. The Joyriffic Band will release their first Cd in December of 2014

Ahead of a much-anticipated vote in the Senate, Judy Shepard, whose homosexual son was beaten to death in 1998, talks to NOW about why she believes the government is "giving permission" for people to harass homosexuals. The Matthew Shepard Act, which would expand the coverage of federal hate crimes to include violent attacks against homosexuals, cleared the House in March. If the Senate approves the measure, President Bush is expected to veto the bill. In a web-exclusive audio interview, Shepard talks to Senior Correspondent Maria Hinojosa about the need for expanding the law, and her son's lasting legacy.