REMEMBERING MAHHEWSHEPARD: VIOLENCE, IDENTITY, AND QUEER COUNTERPUBLIC MEMORIES THOMAS R. DUNN More than ten years after his death, Matthew Shepard is still remembered promi- nently in LGBT discourse. This discourse has been used to defy heteronormative characterizations of violence, confirm gay and lesbian identity, and to "queer" rigid notions of community. Tracing Shepard's memory through three contested memory frames, I argue for an expanded perspective of queer counterpublic memories and the strategic use ofpublic memories by counterpublics. M inutes after midnight October 7, 2008, marked the ten-year an- niversary of the brutal beating and murder of Matthew Shepard, an openly gay college student in Laramie, Wyoming. Targeted for his sexual orientation, robbed, verbally abused, and tortured, the young gay man lashed to a cow fence left an indelible mark in the minds of many Americans. Shepard—unconscious, cold, beaten, and bleeding—would be found the next morning by a passing biker still hanging from the fence, his hands tied behind his back. He would diefivedays later without ever waking THOMAS R . DUNN is a doctoral student in Communication at the University of Pittsburgh. The author would like to thank Kendall Phillips, Lester Qlson, and the anonymous reviewersfor their helpful comments in developing this essay. © 2010 Michigan State University Board ofTrustees. All rights reserved. Rhetoric S Public AfiaiisyoV 13. No. 4,2010, pp. 611-652. ISSN 1094.8392. 611