What Matters

What Matters was composed by singer and songwriter Randi Driscoll. I am a member of Out in Harmony, an LGBTQIA2S+ and allies choir. I introduced What Matters when Out in Harmony performed it in January 2024. We sang it as part of a collection of pieces written by Queer and Trans composers.

Randi Driscoll’s outrage and grief about Matthew Shepard’s murder on October 7, 1998, at the age of 21, fueled this poignant song. Matthew was kidnapped and taken to a field outside of Laramie, Wyoming, where he was attending the University of Wyoming. He was brutally attacked and tied to a fence, dying six days later in a Colorado hospital.

When the trial occurred, Matthew’s parents, Judy and Dennis Shephard, could have advocated for the death penalty for his murderer. But instead, Dennis Shephard gave a profound speech at trial. He said that as Matthew’s parents, they wanted to show mercy to someone who had shown none to their son. As a result, they brokered a deal to save the convicted murderer from the death penalty. Instead, he received two life terms with no chance of parole.

The Shephards said that by abstaining from demanding the death penalty, they were honouring their son’s active fight for the acceptance of all people. As a young advocate, Matthew shone his compassion and caring for those in the LGBTQIA2S+ community because he claimed pride in being a gay man. He stood up for others who were struggling to attain a life defined by dignity and hope.

After the murder trial concluded, his parents spearheaded the Matthew Shepard Foundation This organization lobbied successfully for the country’s first American federal hate crimes legislation and it also established advocacy, outreach, and resource programs.

What especially moves me about this song, What Matters, is what it embodies. It doesn’t focus on Matthew’s terrible death and the hate that propelled it. It is much more about Matthew’s deep integrity as a human being and about his family’s courage and unconditional love.

Out In Harmony Choir, Annie Newman is third from left, front step, red top

I hope when you listen to this music by Randi Driscoll you can be inspired to raise your voice. Even more, I hope you will act to stop violence against the Queer and Trans Community, wherever you are.

Following are the amazing lyrics from Randy Driscoll’s composition What Matters and the YouTube Link is also included of her singing the song.

What Matters
Song by Randi Driscoll ‧ 2000

You were the brightest angel heaven had ever seen
You walked in with a story to tell and ten thousand tongues to scream
And you said
Doesn’t your heart beat the same as mine
Haven’t I told you a thousand times
Isn’t the air in my lungs the same air you breathe

So who cares whose arms I’m all wrapped up in,
Who cares whose eyes I see myself in
Who cares who I dream of, Who cares who I love

Heaven help me for I am lost
What a price my love did cost
But here I am standing strong and I am free
And didn’t we share the same sunrise
And sleep in the same moonlight (tell me)
Isn’t the blood in my veins the same blood you bleed

So who cares whose arms I’m all wrapped up in
Who cares whose eyes I see myself in
Who cares who I dream of, Who cares who I love

When I die, when they lay my body down
The peace that I will find is the peace
That brings you all around
It brings us all around

Doesn’t my mother cry like everyone’s, my father grieve for his lonely son
Isn’t my rainbow a little brighter because

So who cares whose arms I’m all wrapped up in,
Who cares whose eyes I see myself in
Who cares who I dream of, No it doesn’t matter who I dream of
Cause in the end it only matters that I was loved
And I am loved…
Love has no face
Love has no face
Love has no face
Who cares who I love

You can listen to Randy’s moving tribute to Matthew:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTN1-gycimk
(Randi Driscoll-What Matters MV You Tube- Joalby Phoenix-Lopez; Sep 10, 2006)

Credits: Photo of Matthew from Wikipedia: Photographer un-named.