O'Malley has gray hair, watery eyes and a quick laugh -- but he gets quiet and serious when he talks about how Shepard's death changed him. Six years ago, he says, "I was prejudiced. I bought into all the myths and stereotypes. I told all the jokes and used all the gross words about gay Americans. And I had no gay friends or associates that I was aware of." Then, Shepard died, he said, and "I lost my ignorance."

five years ago as i was travelling across the country by truck to move here to sf, i stopped through laramie too, because i wanted to see the town and the bar and the vast emptyness of the countryside, to personally feel and see what the atmosphere was like for matthew shepard. quite poetically, there just happened to be a rainbow over the town as i was there.