Matthew Shepard

[Lemur]

Well, at the very least there's two kinda separate things being discussed here, and it does no good to mash them up:

1. What actually happened with Matthew Shephard. This is the most important bit, because the truth matters.
2. What various actors turned the MS situation into, and how they played it out.

Hypothetical? Here's looking at you.

Hah, if only! I can't easily remember the last time SK directly responded to anything I had to say.

Nah, SK argues with this ... I wouldn't call him a strawman, exactly ... but this sort of idealized Unreasonable Person. It's kinda similar to Fragony's gutmensch trope. The gutmensch is everything bad, but he's not really here, so it's safe to rail against him at length, and explain how stupid the gutmensch is.