Louvon Harris (L) stands alongside her sister Betty Byrd Boatner (2nd R), both sisters of James Byrd, Jr. , as she embraces Judy Shepard (2nd L), mother of Matthew Shepard, as US President Barack Obama looks on after Obama spoke in honor of the enactment of the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. , Hate Crimes Prevention Act during a reception in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC, October 28, 2009.
In 1998, when he was a college student in Wyoming, Shepard was murdered because he was gay. Byrd, an African American man, was dragged behind a pickup truck to his death in Texas the same year.
(Getty)
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