Tampa Bay Coalition
Eye on GLBT News & Headlines
September 20, 2002
by R. Zeke Fread
Deceptive Matthew Shepard Website Taken
Offline
On September 15th, Tampa Bay Coalition received an email
message announcing a new website, supposedly in honor of
Matthew Shepard's memory, his parents' crusades, professing a new way to
further the gay agenda, rights and make a donation to
ones favorite gay charity. It read as
follows:
hello:
this is just an email to let you know about a new way
to further the gay agenda in your city and/or across
the nation. please do not let poor matthew shepard
have died in vain, honor his memory and his parents'
crusades by visiting www.matthewshepard.info
<http://www.matthewshepard.info>. just look around the
new gay rights metropolis, stay for a cup of java and
some education, or even make a donation to your
favorite gay charity.
judy shepard thanks you for taking part in her son's
memory, and so do i.
gratefully yours,
dylan jacobsen
Of course, I found this new website to be
one of great interest to me and promoted issues I supported.
named, anti-gay.com. The first thing seen as the website loads, is
a banner reading, anti-gay.com. This website not only, did not honor
Matthew Shepard or Judy Shepard's crusades. It viciously defamed the
good names of Matthew and Judy. The
first mention of Matthew was a horrendous statement saying;
Matt Shepard was not killed for
being gay, but for being a sexual predator.
Put THAT in your pipe and smoke
it.
Then I clicked a link titled; Join the
Fight Against MS. What I found was even more disturbing. Posted
was
Judy
Shepard's Senate Judiciary Committee Testimony. Mixed between
the lines of her testimony, were what I would consider to be despicable
comments
and remarks. Although, as disturbing as these remarks
and comments were, the
vicious things he called Judy Shepard, were absolutely reprehensible. By
this time,
I was so filled with outrage,
I felt something like this, should not be allowed to go
unchallenged.
The webmasters use of deceit,
deception and dishonesty, for the sole purpose to gain hits to his
websites,
was inconceivable to me. To
profess you are honoring the memory of the victim of one of the
most brutal and horrendous hate crimes and his dear mothers crusade against hate
crimes. Only to defame, berate and
attack these same people,
with a diatribe of shameless and disgusting insults, is
unconscionable.
I
immediately issued an alert to TBC's members, supporters and friends, in an
effort to make them aware of this situation and requested suggestions on
how to go about stopping this individuals deceptive actions. This brought over
150 messages from others as disgusted and outraged as I. All requesting contact
information
for the host server of the
website, so they could lodge complaints. With help from some of those
who received the alert, the contact information for
the host server and the
webmaster, was obtained. I issued a call to action
and included
the contact information. I then received, 142 commitments to
call and 37 commitments to send email messages to the host server, in
twenty-four hours.
This resulted in the host
server, investigating the complaints of the deceptive and dishonest use of
Matthew and Judy Shepard's names, by the webmaster. Finding the claims made
about the webmaster to be true,
a great victory against the deception
being perpetrated and fraudulent use of Matthew and Judy Shepard's good
names. No one should ever be allowed to disrespect or defame the memory of
any victim of a hate crime, for the sole purpose of increasing the hits to
their website. Such actions are unconscionable and those who would
knowingly perpetrate such a deception, should be held accountable and suffer the
wrath of those who are offended by such a deception.
Sadly, the webmaster only lost the tool
to deceive, he still has the ability to continue to defame Matthew and Judy
Shepard. Although, this defaming of others remains repulsive to most, I guess it
is his right. We can
hope, the webmaster, may see
the errors of his ways and do the right thing. But, he proudly boasts, that
he lives to offend and offend he does, so he will most likely continue to do so.
At least, we have succeeded in limiting the number of unsuspecting victims, who
will be deceived into viewing his defamation of two people who we hold near
and dear to our hearts.
View the message posted on anti-gay.com,
September 16, regarding spamming 500-1000 people with his deceptive email,
comments about TBC's members, supporters and friends complaining to his host
server, his host server decision to discontinue his use of the domain name,
www.matthewshepard.info, copy of
TBC's message of complaint sent to his host server. Also, the last two deceptive
messages the webmaster had posted on September 16 and 17th,
on www.matthewshepard.info, before it was taken offline.
Link Below;
Close Window to Return to TBC
Web Site