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Author:
Romaine Patterson
Co-Author:
Patrick Hinds
Publisher:
Alyson Books
Released:
October, 2005

  

Romaine's Book: The Whole World Was Watching

Book Details

Romaine Patterson will tell you that she is just a girl from Wyoming. So how then did she end up as a nationally recognized gay rights activist and an uncensored out of control lesbian on satellite radio?

On the evening of Thursday, October 8, 1998, 20-year-old Romaine Patterson received a phone call that her best friend, Matthew Shepard, had been beaten and left hanging on a split-rail fence outside Laramie, Wyo. Romaine was then thrust to the center of the worldwide media frenzy that descended on Laramie, and she came face-to-face with twisted homophobia when Baptist minister Fred Phelps and his followers picketed Matthew's funeral with signs reading "Matt burns in hell." Upon learning of Phelps's plan to bring his ministry of hate to support Matt's killers at their trial, Romaine went into action. Who can forget the image of Romaine and her friends donning seven-foot angel wings so they could encircle Phelps and his gang, leaving the picketers silent and invisible? From that moment forward, Patterson has become a spokesperson for tolerance, acceptance, and nonviolence around the globe, whether as a founder of Angel Action, as a consultant for The Laramie Project (the award-winning play that has been produced hundreds of times and became an acclaimed HBO film starring Christina Ricci as Patterson), or as co-host of Sirius Radio's successful “Derek and Romaine” Show. In one of their last conversations, Matt told Romaine that he wanted to spend his life helping people realize that they as individuals could make a difference in the world. This is Romaine Patterson's journey to realizing the truth of that statement.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

On the evening of Thursday, October 8, 1998, 20-year-old Romaine Patterson received a phone call that her best friend, Matthew Shepard, had been beaten and left hanging on a split-rail fence outside Laramie, Wyo. Romaine was then thrust to the center of the worldwide media frenzy that descended on Laramie, and she came face-to-face with twisted homophobia when Baptist minister Fred Phelps and his followers picketed Matthew's funeral with signs reading "Matt burns in hell." Upon learning of Phelps's plan to bring his ministry of hate to support Matt's killers at their trial, Romaine went into action. Who can forget the image of Romaine and her friends donning seven-foot angel wings so they could encircle Phelps and his gang, leaving the picketers silent and invisible? From that moment forward, Patterson has become a spokesperson for tolerance, acceptance, and nonviolence around the globe, whether as a founder of Angel Action, as a consultant for The Laramie Project (the award-winning play that has been produced hundreds of times and became an acclaimed Showtime film starring Christina Ricci as Patterson). In one of their last conversations, Matt told Romaine that he wanted to spend his life helping people realize that they as individuals could make a difference in the world. This is Romaine Patterson's journey to realizing the truth of that statement.

Wyoming native, Romaine Patterson got started in activism when her close friend Matthew Shepard was killed. In April of 1999, she founded the Angel Action, an organization for peaceful demonstration. Angel Action is now used all over the world as a means of combating hate. She has also served as a Regional Media Manager for TheGay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD). She continues her work educating youth about hate crimes and has lectured at The University of Wyoming, Georgetown University, Penn State, and others. She curently lives in Brooklyn.

FROM THE CRITICS

Kirkus Reviews
What happens when your best friend is brutally murdered and you find yourself in the limelight? After Matthew Shepard was beaten to death in 1998 by two homophobic men, Patterson, an articulate young woman who could put a personal face on his tragic story, became a media darling. Her memoir opens with a description of her childhood in Wyoming. She was a tomboy who came out as a lesbian in high school; her gay brother eventually died of AIDS. She met Shepard during her freshman year at college, and they became boon companions. After his death, Patterson blossomed into a forceful and sought-after gay-rights activist; she's best remembered for standing up to hatemonger Fred Phelps, who picketed Shepard's memorial service with placards saying, "God Hates Fags." In this seamless autobiography (kudos to co-writer Hinds for helping to craft a remarkably smooth text), Patterson refuses to sugarcoat or propagandize. The Matt Shepard she describes was prone to depression and laziness. Revealing the chinks in her friend's armor doesn't detract from the impact of the story-quite the opposite. Patterson's assessment of the activist community is similarly nuanced and unsentimental. After Shepard's death, she took a job with the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD). She lauds the organization for its tireless work, but also suggests that she sometimes felt exploited like a "trophy or prop . . . before any interview I would always be coached to open with something about Matthew." Eventually, Patterson left GLAAD, returned to school and began co-hosting a radio show; she thinks of herself as "a sort of lesbian Howard Stern." She concludes her memoir with the exhortation, "Do your part. Make the world a better place." Indeed, the book itself is a piece of activism, and readers will not put it down unchanged. Evenhanded and stirring.

text from Barnes & Noble listing

About the book:

The Whole World Was Watching: Living in the Light of Matthew Shepard
By Romaine Patterson with Patrick Hinds (Foreword Written By Judy Shepard)
Released in October 2005
Published by: Advocate Books an imprint of Alyson Publications
ISBN: 1555839010
Format: Hardcover, 304pp


Patrick Hinds

Patrick Hinds began writing at the age of five when his first book, “The Day Everything Came Alive in the Classroom”, having become quite the little sensation at Sippican Elementary School, was published by hand by his first grade teacher, Mrs. Tamlin.

He went on to study theater at Emerson College where, because he wasn’t any good, he gave up the dream of becoming a Broadway star, and began an illustrious career as a coffee schlepping intern at many, he’s told, prestigious, radio stations and network affiliates.

Upon his graduation in 2000—with a degree so general he can hardly remember what it was—He moved to New York City to work as a News Associate for CNBC. More of an optimist than a capitalist, the CNBC gig didn’t last long, and he moved on to bigger and better things—namely bartending.

He began his freelance writing career in the spring of 2002 with an article for Frontiers Magazine and has since written for Girlfriends Magazine, and Gay City News.

After meeting Romaine Patterson at a dirty little dive bar in New York City’s lower east side and, for over a month, cyber-harassing her into agreement that her life story had to be told in book form, he began work on his first book, The Whole World Was Watching.

He lives in New York City and still proudly tends bar at a steak house in mid-town.