Remembering Matthew

"On Wednesday, October 7, 1998, Matthew Shepard was found tied to a fence on the Wyoming prairie, barely alive, his skull fractured and his brain stem crushed.  Comatose, he was taken first to a Laramie hospital, then to a better-equipped one in Fort Collins, Colo., where he died five days later.  We may never know what his killers, Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson, intended to do when they first approached Shepard at Laramie's Fireside Lounge.  We only know that, whatever their intention, they ended up murdering him.

Almost instantly, his death became a flash point in this country's reckoning with gay people, and the cute, clean-cut 21 year old became a symbol of the ravages of intolerance.  The tragedy sparked vigils around the world and led to federal hate-crimes legislation that bears Shepard's name, currently pending in Congress.  (Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama has promised to sign the bill if elected.)

Shepard's impact can also be felt in the work of the Matthew Shepard Foundation, headed by his mother, Judy."

Michael Martin

It's been 10 years.  Please join me in replacing hate with understanding, compassion and acceptance, join the campaign and support the Matthew Shepard Foundation.

God.

God wasnt there.

I remember how ill this made me when I first saw it on tv, read about it.  And it makes me no less ill today.

I can't believe it has been that long.  Such a sad, sad day. We will always remember Mathew. I hope the bill passes.

I can't believe it's been ten years already. I was a freshman in high school when it happened... The disgusting thing is that there have been two cases I remember off the top of my head in the last 1-2 years where something similar has happened. 

I can't see how anyone in their right mind would not vote to pass this bill. 

I was depressed for ages when I heard about it... poor Matthew.

I hope this bill passes.

10 years???  I had no idea.  There have been democrats AND republicans in office since this happened.  How long has this bill been pending?  Why did neither do anything about this?  Why the hell did Congress take so long?

Original Post by peaches0405:

10 years??? I had no idea. There have been democrats AND republicans in office since this happened. How long has this bill been pending? Why did neither do anything about this? Why the hell did Congress take so long?

 

Republicans. See here, here and here. And the Christian Right.

Wow, 10 years.  If you haven't seen it yet, I highly reccomend everyone see the film The Laramie Project.

Thanks for posting this, Split.  I can't believe it's been ten years. 

What happened to that young man was beyond vile. I don't understand that kind of hatred, that kind of fear. Thank you for the reminder, Split.

I haven't hear of it, but will look into it.

I also can not believe that it has been 10 years. It's one of those things that haunts the back of your mind like it was last week.

We had a similiar case here a few years back where the body of a local man was found in a lake stuffed into a suitcase. All because he was gay.

This has to stop.

Ten years have past, and it saddens me to know that we have not come too far from that place in those ten years.  :(  I'm deeply dismayed at the lack of love for those who are simply being themselves.  Prejudice, in ANY form, is something I cannot stomach.  What a sad day in the history of this world.  Tragic

Original Post by peaches0405:

10 years???  I had no idea.  There have been democrats AND republicans in office since this happened.  How long has this bill been pending?  Why did neither do anything about this?  Why the hell did Congress take so long?

 

2007 looked promising.
The Matthew Shepard Act was approved by the House.
Bush expressed disapproval of the Act.
The Act was approved by the Senate.

It was added to a military funding authorization bill.
The hope was this would get it the final Prez approval.
Bush said he'd veto the bill if this act wasnt removed.
It was removed.
VIDEO LINK

We've got new Prez blood coming.
2009 seems more promising.

And thanks Split - I immediately thought of him when I spotted your subject line but hadnt realized the the timeframe. 

I can't, like so many others, believe that it has been 10 years already.  My heart goes out to his family.  What that poor boy went through just because of who he was.

I've been at a loss on what to say to this thread, but I think I know what I want to say.

I don't believe it's been 10 years. I couldn't believe that someone COULD do such a thing. What do we really know about Matthew Shephard? Who was he? What did he want to do with his life? Sadly, we'll never know.

We NEED to get that bill through congress. We need to be able to stand up and say "We the american public DO NOT support Hate Crimes." We need to be able to look each other in the eye and know that hate and intolerance do not reign in America.

Because if it does, we are not HALF the country we like to think we are.

I was only 10 years old when this happened so I don't remember much of it. What I do remember is how appalled my mom was and how she cried when she heard the newscasters describe Matthew's brutal death.

Just awful. This bill clearly needs to be passed.

I was close friends with another guy who was brutally murdered for being gay back in the early 90s - Allen Schindler.

Both his death and that of Mathew Shephard are horrible and a disgrace.

I don't know how I feel about crimes being treated differently because they were motivated by "hate" or "greed" or any other subjective measure.

I know there is a long tradition in our justice system of considering the motive - like killing a spouse out of anger because they were cheating is somehow "better" than killing them to get insurance money. I personally think that anyone who kills someone should be thrown away for life and throw away the key, unless the killing was in self-defense.  I think giving motives so much consideration tends to muddy things up.

Put it another way, I don't think that the thugs who killed these young men are any different than the thugs in the white house who have slaughtered 100,000 or more Iraqis for absolutely no reason, along with over 4000 of our soldiers.  The fact that they get to keep their hands clean actually makes them even MORE cowardly and despicable in my mind.

I'm sorry for not falling into lockstep on this, because I'm appalled as anyone at these crimes, but it seems a bit naive to think that creating a new class of federal crime will magically fix it.  Killing gay people is already quite illegal.

...and in Texas another young gay man was dragged to death behind a truck.

Humans can be ultimately vile and horrible. It doesn't take war or riots to bring out the worst in some of us. We walk among each other never knowing what we are capable of...each of us in his own way.

I wish I could believe that any legislation was going to cure the human spirit of its broken state, but I don't. It is lovely to see the compassion expressed by so many young people. May you be as kind to yourselves and each other as you would be to Matthew and his mother.

Love begets love, and hate engenders hate. We can only change the world one person at a time, ourselves. Thank you for the reminder, splitrail. We must always remember what is within each of us, and try like "hell" to bring out our best, one day at a time.

The "Matthew Shepherd Act" is in fact an expansion of the 1969 United States Federal Hate-Crime law which recognizes crimes motivated by race, religion or national origin.  

In addition to extending protection to victims of crime motivated by gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability, the proposed act would enable federal intervention in cases that local authorities opt not to investigate.

So you see, this is not a "gay" issue, it's a human rights issue.

"Hate crimes violate everything our country stands for. They send the poisonous message that certain Americans deserve to be victimized solely because of who they are. These are crimes committed against entire communities, the Nation as a whole and the very ideals upon which our country was founded."

Senator Edward Kennedy, addressing the Senate, April 12, 2007

My God. This is the first time I have ever heard of this. I was pretty sheltered as a kid and lived in a super small town. I can't believe I never knew about this. That poor beautiful boy.