This might be an uncomfortable story but it looks very much like the murder of Matthew Shepard was not homophobic and was not a hate crime. One or both of the murderers was gay themselves and had had a relationship with Matt. Matt was also a crystal meth dealer and in a dark place and clearly had terrible friends.

I was in high school when this happened and it definitely had some kind of impact on me and I never once doubted that it was not a hate crime. Of course there are homophobic hate crimes, but not this one, not the biggest and most famous one.

Fucking media god damnit.