HARRY WOODS: And my apartment has windows on two opposite streets. One goes north and one goes south. And that is exactly the homecoming parade route. Now, on the day of the parade, I had a cast on my leg because of a fall. So I was very disappointed because I really wanted to walk with the people that were marching for Matthew. But I couldn’t. So I watched from my window. And it was … it was just … I’m fifty-two years old and I’m gay. I have lived here for many years and I’ve seen a lot. And I was very moved when I saw the tag on the end of the homecoming parade. About a hundred people walking behind a banner for Matthew Shepard.

So then the parade went down to the end of the block to make a U-turn, and I went to the other side of my apartment to wait for it to come south down the other street.

MATT GALLOWAY: I was right up in front there where they were holding the banner for Matthew, and let me tell you … I’ve never had goose bumps so long in my life. It was incredible. A mass of people. Families—mothers holding their six-year-old kids, tying these armbands around these six-year-old kids and trying to explain to them why they should wear an armband. Just amazing. I mean it was absolutely one of the most—beautiful things I’ve ever done in my life.

HARRY WOODS: Well, about ten minutes went by, and sure enough the parade started coming down the street. And then I noticed the most incredible thing … as the parade came down the street … the number of people walking for Matthew Shepard had grown five times. There were at least five hundred people marching for Matthew. Five hundred people. Can you imagine? The tag at the end was larger than the entire parade. And people kept joining in. And you know what? I started to cry. Tears were streaming down my face. And I thought, “Thank God that I got to see this in my lifetime.” And my second thought was, “Thank you, Matthew.”

MOMENT: ONE OF OURS

SHERRY JOHNSON: I really haven’t been all that involved, per se. My husband’s a highway patrolman, so that’s really the only way that I’ve known about it.

Now when I first found out I just thought it was horrible. I just, I can’t … Nobody deserves that! I don’t care who ya are.

But, the other thing that was not brought out—at the same time this happened that patrolman was killed. And there was nothing. Nothing. They didn’t say anything about the old man that killed him. He was driving down the road and he shouldn’t have been driving and killed him. It was just a little piece in the paper. And we lost one of our guys.