MENOMONIE – Judy Shepard said she couldn’t even recognize her son, Matthew, when she first saw him in the hospital after two men attacked him in 1998.

“His head was swabbed in bandages, there were tubes everywhere – keeping him alive,” Shepard said, while speaking at the UW-Stout campus Monday night.

“I wasn’t even sure this was Matt, but when we approached the bed I realized he was my precious son,” Shepard said.

Matthew Shepard was beaten and chained to a fence Oct. 6, 1998, by two men in Laramie, Wyo., because he was homosexual. Shepard, who laid in the field for 18 hours after the attack, died Oct. 12, 1998, due to injuries he sustained that night.

Shepherd’s two murderers are each serving two consecutive life sentences.

Judy Shepard spoke as a part of Stout’s performing arts and lecture series to a crowd of over 400, according to officials for the event.

She told the crowd how she received a phone call in 1998 while in Saudi Arabia about the attack on her son, who was attending college in Wyoming at the time. She and her husband didn’t know Matthew’s exact condition, but knew it was serious. So they immediately flew back to the United States.

When the Shepards got to the hospital, their son was on life support, and when they held his hand, he twitched involuntarily. He wasn’t aware of his family, he just knew he was being touched, Judy Shepard said.

When Matthew died, she said, there was a kind of relief that he was no longer suffering, but she knew her family’s grieving had just begun.

“All of our hopes for Matt were killed,” she said. “For $20 and some twisted reason only known by his killers.”

She said she goes to campuses and other places to tell the story of the attack on her son and his death because the violence, fear and hate language must stop.

“I want this to stop,” Shepard told the crowd. “It’s time for this to stop.”

Shepard told the crowd everyone can take steps to empower themselves to fight the hatred and violence aimed at minorities.

She said you can vote for stronger legislation, or join or start an organization. Actions like these are steps to overcoming prejudice and discrimination, Shepard said.

“We have become a ‘sic’ society. S-I-C – silent, indifferent and complacent,” she said.

Her message was not to just tolerate others, but to accept everyone and cherish their differences.

“We tolerate bad hair days,” Shepard said as an example.. “We love and accept people.”

UW-Eau Claire junior Tony Eichberger attended Shepard’s speech Monday and said she had a good message of equality, regardless of sexual orientation. He also appreciated the sense of humor she showed.

“I enjoyed her candor and sincerity,” Eichberger said, “and I thought that she raised some very important issues that need to be discussed on campuses.”

Eichberger went to the speech due to curiosity and to hear Shepard.

“I was surprised at how comfortable she seemed at speaking to an audience considering everything she’s endured,” he said.

Shepard blames the two men for her son’s death, “but I blame society just as much,” she told the crowd.

The Shepard family established a foundation with the goal of embracing diversity and spreading the memory of Matthew’s life.

“We have done something positive out of something so negative,” Judy Shepard said. “Matt’s life was based on helping his fellow man. He just felt everyone should be happy.”