This "new perspective" on Shepard's case is somewhat amusing and appalling at the same time. And to claim that McKinney became Shepard's lover is just preposterous! Does the author wants to eradicate this "anti-gay hate crime" label on McKinney? Because I think, it doesn't matter. To take one's life is an inhumane act.
I learned this Shepard incident from reading a play called "The Laramie Project" by Moisés Kaufman and in the play, there's this subtle notion that Shepard's murder was highly sensationalized because it is labeled as an "anti-gay hate crime" but in another city near Laramie, there's this another murder on the same day when Shepard's body was seen tied to a fence in the middle of the prairie outside Laramie and yet, no one seemed to bother about it. It may be an unpopular opinion but a murder is a murder whatever the motivation or the gender of the murdered person is and it's a crime against humanity.
