The Totemic Narrative of Matthew Shepard

I think so many good things came from the death of Matthew Shepard, but we've still got a long way to go. We learn about political realities and systemic realities by these totemic narratives. People feel like as long as they debunk one, that's the whole trend has gone. I wish you could just write a story saying, hey, homophobia is bad without tying it to this narrative.