In a new ad released Tuesday, Judy
Shepard denounces Donald Trump.
Shepard's son Matthew was brutally
murdered in 1998 by two men he met in a gay bar. She spent the
better part of a decade lobbying for passage of the Matthew Shepard
and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act.
In the 1-minute video, titled Hate,
Shepard is seated in a kitchen.
“I've seen what can happen as the
result of hate,” Shepard says.
“In the aftermath of Matt's death my
family saw the best of America in the love and support we were
shown.”
“So, when I see the hate that Donald
Trump brings to his campaign for president, it terrifies me. Words
have an influence. Violence causes pain. Hate can rip us apart. I
know what can happen as the result of hate, and Donald Trump should
never be our president,” she adds.