Mr. Shepard’s parents worried that if they chose a final resting place for their son, it would be at risk of desecration.
Now they have found a safe place. On Oct. 26, Mr. Shepard will be interred at the Washington National Cathedral, the neo-Gothic, Episcopalian house of worship that is a fixture of American politics and religion.
“I think it’s the perfect, appropriate place,” Dennis Shepard, Matthew’s father, said in an interview on Thursday. “We are, as a family, happy and relieved that we now have a final home for Matthew, a place that he himself would love.”
…
“It is a noteworthy place to be at rest, and it invites conversations about the importance of this person and what this person represents in American history,” he said.
Mr. Marsden added that Mr. Shepard liked his church in Wyoming and would have appreciated being interred at the grand cathedral in Washington. “I think that with Matt’s sense of occasion and drama, he would have found that tremendously gratifying and very cool,” he said.
Matthew Shepard Will Be Interred at the Washington National Cathedral, 20 Years After His Death
mysong5 