Romaine Patterson won't ever forget the last conversation she had with Matthew Shepard. It was a few days before the gay University of Wyoming student was fatally beaten near Laramie 10 years ago.

"Matthew told me that he believed he could change the world, that he could make the world a better place," she recalled last week. "I remember I laughed at him, because I thought, how can one person change the world? That's a pretty lofty goal."

But in his tragic death, Shepard, who came to symbolize the fight for equal rights for gays, lesbians and transgendered people, did change the world.

"I saw that I, too, could change the world and make it a better place," said Patterson, a lesbian who is now a radio talk show host in New York City. "I learned from Matthew to have confidence in that fact, and not to laugh at the idea that someone could change the world.

"If your intentions are good and true, nothing can stop you," she added.

In "The Laramie Project," the Moises Kaufman play that focuses on how Shepard's murder affected the residents of Laramie, Patterson confesses to the audience that she had always wanted to be a rock star. After her friend's death, she explained in the play, she wanted to be an activist.

Patterson knew she had to do something when she learned that Fred Phelps, an anti-gay Kansas Baptist preacher who protested at Shepard's funeral in Casper, was going to be in Laramie at the trial of Russell Henderson, one of Shepard's two killers. She came up with the idea of "Angel Action": She would recruit friends to join her, wearing huge angel wings made out of bedsheets. Together, they would block Phelps from his would-be audience and the media outside the Albany County Courthouse.

It worked. The hate-spewing preacher and his flock, which consisted mostly of his relatives, tried in vain to lift their "God Hates Fags" and "Matthew in Hell" signs above the angel wings.

"It was cold, and we were all shivering," she said. "Fred Phelps' group was so stunned; they didn't have anyone to yell at because no one could see them." Phelps' daughter, Shirley, began singing hymns.

"It was so quiet, with this group singing hymns and us with our wings fluttering in the Wyoming wind," Patterson said. "I remember thinking, what a serene moment, because it all kind of felt connected. I'll never forget it."

At the time, she said, she never imagined that her Angel Action would be a much-imitated way to counter anti-gay protesters. It marked her birth as an activist.

"Who knew it would become the kind of phenomenon it did?" she said. "We just thought we were doing something good."

Patterson had planned to continue college at Penn State, but first she was offered a job as the regional media coordinator for the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. She accepted, and was soon leading campaigns to get psychologist Laura Schlessinger fired from her radio show and protesting rapper Eminem's anti-gay lyrics.

After a while, she said, "All of the activism started to take a kind of emotional toll." She went back to school in Arizona to study to become a radio engineer, then moved to New York City.

The Sirius satellite radio network had recently started, and Patterson learned it was "desperately in need of a lesbian who could host a talk show and produce." She fit the bill perfectly, and Patterson has been co-hosting "The Derek and Romaine Show" for the past five years.

"It's a new form of activism, but definitely a fun one," she said.

Before a recent taping, she talked about how she met Shepard at Casper College.

"I was kind of well-known on the campus because I was pretty openly gay, and I had kind of a gaggle of gays that I ran around with," she recalled. An instructor told her that there was a student who was looking to meet some other gay kids, and she told him to send Shepard her way.

They quickly became good friends.

"There's a lot to remember about Matthew," she said. "First and foremost, he was a really terrific guy. There was always a smile on his face, and he was always looking to make new friends … he certainly taught me a thing or two about friendship."

Patterson moved to Denver and worked at a coffee shop, while Shepard moved to Laramie and enrolled at the University of Wyoming to study political science. She learned about the attack after a customer said he'd heard on the news that a young gay man had been severely beaten in Laramie.

"We were afraid it might be Matthew," she said.

Patterson said she frequently talks about Shepard at productions of "The Laramie Project" throughout the country, and she's seen hundreds of shows, often at high schools.

"It's been really incredible. I get to see these young kids who fight for the opportunity to produce the play. They believe so passionately about it," she said.

Patterson said she thinks Shepard would be honored by all of the attention.

"It's not every day that your life gets to matter in this kind of way," he said. "I think if Matthew had known that this was going to be his fate and this was going to be how he would change the world, I think he would have embraced that."

In the decade since Shepard's death, Patterson said she has tried to follow his example and make the world a better place.

"Whether it's through activism or being a mother or doing a silly radio show, as long as I'm using my voice and I stay true to that goal, I really feel like I can have an impact," she said. "That goal would have been lost if I hadn't met Matthew. I'll be forever grateful for that lesson."