A Wyoming native, Romaine Patterson got started in activism when her close friend Matthew Shepard was killed in a brutal anti-gay hate crime in October of 1998. Immediately following his death, Romaine started speaking at vigils and community events across the country. Due to the massive media coverage Shepard’s death garnered, Romaine quickly became a seasoned professional speaker.

Romaine is probably best known for her work combating the anti-gay antics of the Rev. Fred Phelps, whose followers picketed Shepard’s funeral and murder trials. In April of 1999, she founded Angel Action, an organization for peaceful demonstration, now used all over the world as a means of combating hate.

In 2005, Advocate Books published what Romaine hopes will be the first of many books, “The Whole World Was Watching; Living in the Light of Matthew Shepard” her autobiography.

For the past 6 years, Romaine has been a Co-host and Producer of “Derek and Romaine” featuring a wild array of uncensored topics and guests on Sirius/XM’s LGBT station OutQ. One of the most popular drive time talk shows on the Sirius/XM radio platform, “Derek and Romaine” airs weekdays from 6-10pm EST with daily rebroadcasts.

When she’s not on the air, Romaine spends a great deal of time speaking at universities, colleges and high schools around the country on a variety of issues. She has always maintained that educating today’s youth is the key to putting a stop to hate and continues to work with the Matthew Shepard Foundation to meet this end.

All of Romaine’s speaking engagements can be crafted to cover a variety of subjects depending on your needs. For instance, she can speak on relatively light-hearted topics such as sexuality, romance and dating issues as well as the any of following serious civil issues:

• Matthew Shepard – Hear firsthand what happened and why. Find out how lives were changed and what didn’t change at all.
• The Laramie Project – What it was really like, and what it means today for the people seeing it and the people that lived it.
• Hate Crimes – How hate crimes affect a community and what can be done locally and nationally to create change.
• Coming Out – Romaine came out at age 13 in a small town in Wyoming. Her coming out story and subsequent struggles serve as a very good example of how to overcome adversity and become a better person.
• Issues of Hate in School – From name calling in the hall way to attacks on campus what can be done to make schools safer for everyone.
• Images in the Media – From Eminem to Will & Grace how images in the media affect the way people look at LGBT issues.
• Youth Activism – Tips on how young people can get involved in activism in some very basic ways.

Romaine ends most of her speaking engagements with an open forum Q&A.