When Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd announced the details of Ryan’s murder two years ago, he said Ryan had met his murderers because he’d been trolling for sex, implying that Ryan had put himself at risk. He also accused Ryan of conspiring to forge checks with his accused killers. Neither of these allegations proved to be true. Sheriff Judd also took the highly unusual step of immediately releasing the murder victim’s juvenile arrest record. Ryan had had two minor pot busts when he was young.

Because of these smears, the national media moved on and never gave this story the coverage it demanded. A right-winger who touts his Christianity, Judd has never apologized to Ryan’s family for any of this.

But to your point, in the investigation, more than one witness told detectives that both accused murders, Joe Bearden and William Brown, made negative remarks about Ryan being gay on the night of the murder. At the outset, police described it as a gay hate crime.

Ryan was openly gay and had the complete support of his family and friends. Since his death, his mother, stepfather and brother have become closely allied with the gay community.