A college student, Matthew Shepard, was beaten and left to die because of his sexual orientation in Laramie, Wyoming, in October of 1998.
On Tuesday, his mother Judy Shepard will speak on campus.
As part of her son's fight for social justice, Shepard travels nationwide to spread awareness of hate crimes and advocate for gay rights. The funds that she raises are used to finance the charitable Matthew Shepard Foundation.
Numerous organizations on the Bowdoin campus contributed to bringing Shepard here to speak.
"I was extremely pleased with how easy it actually was to get her to come to campus," said Co-President of the Bowdoin Queer-Straight Alliance (BQSA) Daniel Robinson '07. "At first I was discouraged by the size of her fee, but once I started looking for cosponsors, I realized that because so many people wanted her to come it wouldn't be hard to raise the money."
Shepard's appearance is being sponsored by the BQSA, the Women's Resource Center, the Gay and Lesbian Studies Department, and the Mellon Fund, among others.
"I am hoping that the audience that leaves Judy Shepard's presentation will have an idea of how an intense hatred of a few can ruin the lives of many," said Robinson.
Shepard will be on campus this week in conjunction with the performance of "The Laramie Project."
"The Laramie Project" was written in response to Matthew Shepard's brutal murder. The play, written by Moisés Kaufman and members of the Tectonic Theater Project, uses only eight actors but draws from the stories of over 60 residents of Laramie, Wyoming, in the year following Shepard's death.
The production is structured around the pitfalls and heights of humanity, and it has never before been performed at Bowdoin.
The Laramie Project is being directed by senior Michael Wood who fell in love with the play during his sophomore-year directing class and feels that the message sent by Laramie is an important one.
"First off, it's an amazing story about issues that Americans and the world are not always comfortable confronting, and that's why the play is worth doing, to keep pushing everyone out of that comfort zone of silence. [It is about] ending the silence as well as spreading the message; making sure that Brunswick, Maine cares as much about what happened in Laramie as the people there do, so that we don't look at it as something that doesn't and can't happen in our community."
Ms. Shepard will be appearing the night preceding the first performance of the Laramie Project.
"I think Judy Shepard's appearance is fantastic for this campus and community," said Wood. "I hope that Ms. Shepard's appearance on campus will encourage people to look closer at the issues that Ms. Shepard and The Laramie Project are raising."
Robinson said, "I think that the people who come to see Judy Shepard and then go see the Laramie Project will have a keener sense of the situation surrounding her son's murder."
Ms. Shepard's lecture will be held on Tuesday at 8 p.m. in Kresge Auditorium. The Laramie Project will be performed Wednesday and Thursday at 7 p.m. in Wish Theater.