name just a few decades ago or people were killed in lifetime for being gay for being black matthew shepherd killed 20 years ago so what's wrong with being justice warrior given that? >> well it's -- it's if you tried to make it depends what you mean by equality because, obviously, equal rights are -- an essential human value and i have whole chapter on equal rights and for pretty much any measure of equal rights that you want despite the tweets coming from oval office, but by my measure how well women and children and gay people are doing how racial minorities including african-americans are doing there's been progress. and -- the problem with social justice warfare and with identity politics is that it denies the, the well being of individuals in favor of the -- of the average results of an entire group and it is individuals who suffer who flourish, with who take advantage of opportunities or don't who are oppressed or who aren't and are energy should be focused not on demonizing say whites opposed to blacks or men opposed to women because there's great variation among whites among blacks,

. >>> next the parents of matthew shepherd on his legacy and their continuing struggle in the battle q rights. >>> "nightline" continues with byron pitts. >>> this year marks the 20th anniversary of matthew shepard's death. his horrifying murder shocked the national conscience. a watershed moment in gay rights history and turns his parents into accidental activists. when juju chang met them in wyoming to discuss their continuing battle to make something decent emerge from this unspeakable crime. >> you said i'm angrier now in some ways. >> i thought we were making progress. after the election, i'm so mad we are rexwresing. here we are again. >> matt shepard savagely beaten last week in wyoming died this morning. >> reporter: it's been 20 years hins sis murder become synonym mus with homophobic hate. his parents dennis and judy have turned their family's tragedy into a legacy of hope. but their fight for lgbtq rights is far from over. they point to a recent uptick in hate crimes underscoring what they say is a resurgence of bigotry. >> if you're not a straight white christian man in th

she said to me, thank goodness that hasn't happened and i went, excuse me, have you heard of matthew shepherd and she went, who? and i said would you excuse me a minute and i had to go into the bathroom and splash water on my face and calm myself down because i was so anfully the moment because my journalist had gone back on and the purposes of the book i had to go back in there and finish the interview and hayed to create that pointr of view in the book and it's there and i can't even tell you how this really oppose today -- opposed to that point of view i have but it's in the book. >> host: this is melissa, she sent a couple of tweets, i really we wanted to get through nineteen minutes but being the teenager during rise of school ngshootings this was hard, i wil try again when there's no further possibility of a threat. >> guest: like i said i have two his honor who are public school teachers right now. my daughter teaches fourth grade, part of her master's program involved learning what to do during active school shooting, they gave every teacher a rubber doorstop because that will stop fr