The Whole World Was Watching: Living in the Light of Matthew Shepard

About this book

On the evening of Thursday October 8 1998 20-year-old Romaine Patterson received a phone call that her best friend Matthew Shepard had been beaten and left hanging on a split-rail fence outside Laramie Wyo. Patterson was then thrust into the center of the worldwide media frenzy that descended on Laramie and she came face-to-face with homophobic backlash when Baptist minister Fred Phelps and his followers picketed Shepards funeral with signs reading Matt in Hell. Upon learning of Phelpss plan to take his ministry of hate to support Shepards killers at their trial Patterson went into action. Who can forget the image of Patterson and her friends donning seven-foot angel wings so they could encircle Phelps and his gang leaving the picketers silent and invisible? From that moment forward Patterson has become a spokesperson for tolerance acceptance and nonviolence around the globe whether as a founder of Angel Action as a consultant for The Laramie Project (the award-winning play that has been produced hundreds of times and became an acclaimed Showtime film starring Christina Ricci as Patterson) or as cohost of the successful Sirius Satellite Radio show Derek & Romaine. In one of their last conversations Shepard told Patterson that he wanted to spend his life helping people realize that they as individuals could make a difference in the world. This book is Romaine Pattersons journey to realizing the truth of that statement.