Not Just a Wyoming Problem

In 1998, the year that Matthew Shepard died in Laramie, Wyo., University of Wyoming student Jim Osborn was elected president of the school's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) support group. What followed next wasn't quite what Osborn expected: speaking to national news outlets, hosting candlelight vigils within the community and, since then, keeping the legacy of Shepard alive in Laramie. Since graduating, he's become an employee in the school's office of diversity, so he's the right man to ask what has changed in Wyoming, what needs to happen nationwide in regards to gay rights and how we should all respond one decade after the death of Shepard. He spoke to NEWSWEEK's Kurt Soller. Excerpts:

NEWSWEEK: Why did you first get involved in the LGBT group on campus?
Jim Osborn: For me, I had been involved in a lot of things in high school—student council, speech and debate, national honor society—so when I came out in college, I started attending meetings for the group and it was a support network. It provided the love and acceptance that I wasn't sure I could get elsewhere. Then, when the group needed leadership, I was put in charge.

Is that how you met Matthew Shepard?
When he got to town he was interested in joining the student group. He attended meetings, but unfortunately, he hadn't been here long and he hadn't been to many meetings [before he was killed]. But I saw him almost everyday on campus hanging out in front of the union or studying.

Within the group, and on campus, what was the reaction to his death?
It was one of grief and shock. Anybody's life that has been touched by violence feels that. But violence like that is not an everyday occurrence here. Nationally, Wyoming was portrayed as a place where frontier justice goes on, and where there were lynch mobs out in the street carrying out justice of that sort. But we don't even have many assaults or murders, because we just don't have that many people living here.

Were you scared for your own safety?
What we learned in Laramie is that safety is a relative term. I've always believed this is a friendly place with good people. But it only takes one or two people to disrupt that safety. There was concern about the possibility of copycat crimes, so we encouraged our members to be cautious and not to go anywhere alone at times.

I imagine that's not the advice you expected to give when you were elected leader of the group.
No, when I was elected, I didn't expect to be on the "Today Show" or BBC. (Laughs.) But I was going to have to be a spokesperson for the community and, whether I liked it or not, a spokesperson for gay people throughout Wyoming.