In 1998, Matthew Shepard was just a 21-year-old student at the University of Wyoming. But in October of that year, Shepard came to stand for much more.

Brutally tortured and murdered by two men on Oct. 6 and 7, Shepard’s death shocked a nation and came to galvanize the modern LGBT-rights movement. In “The Meaning of Matthew,” Judy Shepard, Matthew’s mother, writes how she and her husband coped with the unthinkable tragedy of losing their son at the young age of 21, including enduring the court trials of his killers and being strengthened by the public’s expressions of sympathy and support.

Shepard is now co-founder of the Matthew Shepard Foundation, an organization dedicated to promoting social justice, diversity awareness and equality for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people. She comes to the Penn Bookstore on June 22 at 6:30 p.m. to discuss and sign copies of the updated paperback release of “The Meaning of Matthew.” For more information, go to www.upenn.edu/bookstore.