Gay-rights activist Judy Shepard will speak Friday in Olympia. Shepard is not a household name, but her late son is. Matthew Shepard was the gay college student who was beaten to death in 1998 in Laramie, Wyoming.

Judy Shepard's speech is sponsored by the Matthew Shepard Foundation and the South Puget Sound Community College Queer-Straight Alliance - whose Facebook page announces the event with the headline "Judy FREAKING Shepard Is Coming to Speak at SPSCC" and a photograph of a yowling cat captioned "OMG!!!"

[Kenneth J. Minnaert Center for the Arts, Judy Shepard, Friday, Feb. 18, 7:30 p.m., donations accepted, 2011 Mottman Road S.W., Olympia, 360.753.8586 or washingtoncenter.org]