Today is the 25th anniversary of Matthew Shepard’s death 6 days after he was horrifically beaten by two men.

The story as it was told at the time was a simple morality play: Matthew made a pass at a man in a bar, and that man and his buddy committed a brutal murder after a torture session as a punishment for offending their homophobic sense of honor.

It was a satisfying morality tale about the horrors of homophobia, and fit the narrative being pushed by the Left perfectly. It took 15 years for the real story to come out, written by a journalist who wanted to write a play celebrating life and valorizing the death of a gay man beaten for being different.

It was, of course, a total lie. Not one bit of it was true, in fact. It was made up to satisfy the need for a Jesus-like victim.

That the story is a lie is not really disputed. Stephen Jimenez wrote a book about the murder called “The Book of Matt: Hidden Truths About the Murder of Matthew Shepard,” which was well-reviewed and stands unrefuted. Even left-wing reviewers write glowingly of the book.

I’m not going to get into the details, except to note one thing: one of the killers was not a homophobic hater, but was in fact an on-again off-again lover of Matt’s. This is hardly the stuff of a homophobic hate crime; it was a meth-fueled murder spree that was ignited because the perpetrators were trying to steal a cache of the drug from Shepard.

Still, if you look on Twitter and elsewhere, there are plenty of posts sharing the story of Matt as that simple morality tale and calling us to embrace our LGB brothers and sisters. The moral tale stuck, because it is useful for the cause. There are plenty of reasons to recognize and respect the humanity and dignity of gays and lesbians who earn it, but comparing Shepard to Jesus is not one of them. It is a hoax.

I was a teenager when this murder occurred and it hit me in an indescribable way

This summer when I was in DC I took a tour of the National Cathedral and that’s when I learned that his remains are in the cathedral vault. I was hit by a wave of emotion when I came across this pic.twitter.com/CV3TgfqCEp

— Shari Conditt, NBCT (@ShariConditt) October 6, 2023

The sanctification of Shepard as a victim of homophobia rather than as a meth dealer murdered by other meth dealers is but one of many examples of how our view of the world is misshapen by the Narrative™ builders. So much of what we believe to be true is constructed out of whole cloth for the sole purpose of pulling our heartstrings, scaring us half to death, or nudging us to do as our betters want.

Shepard is interred at the National Cathedral, and they have celebrated masses in his honor.

We live in a world of lies because the people we rely on to tell us the truth are themselves liars.

Treating others with respect is something we should all teach our children, and it doesn’t take spreading noble or ignoble lies to do so. In fact, lying to people is an act of disrespect, of contempt, really, for the listener.

Matthew Shepard didn’t deserve what he got, but he certainly didn’t deserve to be turned into a modern-day Jesus either. He was a very flawed, complicated, and ultimately unethical man who f’ed around and found out. He probably would have straightened his life out someday–he came from a wealthy and privileged family who had the means to help him. I wish that he had the chance.

He didn’t.

The people who used this incident to reshape the Narrative, though–I wish them ill because they are a cancer on our society. Their lies are an affront to us all. They weaponize compassion; they aim to manipulate; they are frauds who deserve contempt even more than a meth dealer.

May they rot in hell for abusing our trust.