Romaine Patterson (born March 31, 1978), is an American LGBT rights activist, radio personality, and

author An author is the writer of a book, article, play, mostly written work. A broader definition of the word "author" states: "''An author is "the person who originated or gave existence to anything" and whose authorship determines responsibility f ...

. She first received national attention for her activism at the funeral of murdered gay student

Matthew Shepard Matthew Wayne Shepard (December 1, 1976 – October 12, 1998) was a gay American student at the University of Wyoming who was beaten, tortured, and left to die near Laramie on the night of October 6, 1998. He was taken by rescuers to Po ...

; the two became friends when Shepard moved to Casper, Wyoming to attend college. For twelve years up until June 2015, she and Derek Hartley co-hosted the ''Derek and Romaine'' show on

SiriusXM Sirius XM Holdings Inc. is an American broadcasting company headquartered in Midtown Manhattan, New York City that provides satellite radio and online radio services operating in the United States. It was formed by the 2008 merger of Sirius Sa ...

's OutQ. Patterson and Hartley launched their own independent online streaming network and returned to the air on January 4, 2016, via the show's website.

Childhood and family

Born in

Wyoming Wyoming () is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho to the west, Utah to the southwest, and Colorado to the s ...

, Patterson is the youngest of eight children. Three of her brothers are

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...

, and one of them, Michael, died from AIDS. She spent several summers during high school in

Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the wes ...

, living with her brothers and working at Diedrich's Coffee Shop. Openly lesbian, Patterson lives in

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

with her wife Iris and her first child, a child born July 20th 2007, also named Romaine.

Activism

Patterson's best-known activist work was her response to the anti-gay protests by

Fred Phelps Fred Waldron Phelps Sr. (November 13, 1929 – March 19, 2014) was an American minister who served as the pastor of the Westboro Baptist Church, worked as a civil rights attorney, and ran for statewide election in Kansas. He gained nation ...

of the

Westboro Baptist Church The Westboro Baptist Church (WBC) is a small American, unaffiliated Primitive Baptist church in Topeka, Kansas, founded in 1955 by pastor Fred Phelps. Labeled a hate group, WBC is known for engaging in homophobic and anti-American pickets, ...

during the trials of Russell Henderson and Aaron McKinney for the murder of Matthew Shepard. Patterson organized counter protests known as "Angel Action", in which groups of people dressed as angels with extremely large wings that shielded the families from Phelps and his group. Patterson was later depicted in ''

The Laramie Project ''The Laramie Project'' is a 2000 play by Moisés Kaufman and members of the Tectonic Theater Project (specifically, Leigh Fondakowski, writer-director; Stephen Belber, Greg Pierotti, Barbara Pitts, Stephen Wangh, Amanda Gronich, Sara Lambert, ...

'', a play about the event based on interviews with the participants. In the film version of the play, she was portrayed by actress Christina Ricci. She was portrayed by Canadian actress

Kristen Thomson Kristen Thomson (born 1966) is a Canadian actress and playwright. Thomson was born in Toronto, Ontario. She is known for her one-woman play ''I, Claudia'', which was adapted to film in 2004. In that play and film, Thomson plays all of the roles ...

in the TV movie ''

The Matthew Shepard Story ''The Matthew Shepard Story'' is a 2002 made-for-television film directed by Roger Spottiswoode, based on the true story of Matthew Shepard, a 21-year-old gay youth who was murdered in 1998. The film scenario written by John Wierick and Jacob Krue ...

''. Patterson later worked at the

Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation GLAAD (), an acronym of Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, is an American non-governmental media monitoring organization originally founded as a protest against defamatory coverage of gay and lesbian demographics and their portrayals ...

as a Regional Media Manager. She has written a book about her experiences as an activist since Shepard's death, called ''The Whole World Was Watching''.

Works

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Patterson, Romaine 1978 births Living people American radio personalities American lesbian writers American LGBT rights activists American LGBT broadcasters LGBT people from Wyoming 21st-century American women