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| Compiled by Badpuppy's GayToday
 On Thursday night, Matthew Shepard, a gay University of Wyoming
student, was savagely attacked, burned, and left to die for up to 18 hours
tied to a wooden fence outside Laramie, 30 miles northwest of Cheyenne.
When Shepard was found he was unconscious and his skull had been smashed with a blunt object; he also appeared to have substantial burns on his body and cuts on his head and face, his family said. He died this morning. Two motorcyclists who found his body said he looked "like a scarecrow" because of the way he was positioned on the fence. Until he died, Shepard had been in critical condition in the intensive care unit at Poudre Valley Hospital in Fort Collins, Colorado where he remained unconscious and hooked up to a respirator. He had twice been beaten recently and attributed those attacks to his openness about his sexuality, friends told the Associated Press. Responding swiftly to Matthew Shepard's savage torture by the Wyoming homophobes President Bill Clinton telephoned the youth's parents to express his sympathy and issued the following public statement:
 I was deeply grieved by the act of violence perpetrated against
Matthew Shepard of Wyoming.
The Justice Department has assured me that local law enforcement officials are proceeding diligently to bring those responsible to justice. And I am determined that we will do everything we can and offer whatever assistance is appropriate. Hillary and I ask that your thoughts and your prayers be with Mr. Shepard and his family, and with the people of Laramie, Wyoming. In the face of this terrible act of violence, they are joining together to demonstrate that an act of evil like this is not what our country is all about. In fact it strikes at the very heart of what it means to be an American and at the values that define us as a Nation. We must all reaffirm that we will not tolerate this. Just this year there have been a number of recent tragedies across our country that involve hate crimes. The vicious murder of James Byrd last June in Jasper, Texas and the assault this week on Mr. Shepard are only among the most horrifying examples. Almost one year ago I proposed that Congress enact the Hate Crimes Prevention Act. Our Federal laws already punish some crimes committed against people on the basis of race or religion or national origin, but we should do more. This crucial legislation would strengthen and expand the ability of the Justice Department to prosecute hate crimes by removing needless jurisdictional requirements for existing crimes and by giving Federal prosecutors the power to prosecute hate crimes committed because of the victim's sexual orientation, gender, or disability. All Americans deserve protection from hate. There is nothing more important to the future of this country than our standing together against intolerance, prejudice, and violent bigotry. It is not too late for Congress to take action before they adjourn and pass The Hate Crimes Prevention Act. By doing so they will help make all Americans more safe and secure. President Clinton's comments were backed by House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt, (D-Mo.) who said of the attack: ``This heinous crime deserves the condemnation of all Americans." Jack Nichols, author of The Gay Agenda: Talking Back to the Fundamentalists (Prometheus Books) said: "I blame the atmosphere created by local snake-oil Christian fundamentalists, killers by nature. They're always publicly invoking the Leviticus death penalty for gay men and lesbians, inspiring legions of their mental misfits to such dastardly acts as has been perpetrated on young Matthew Shepard. There are no FCC prohibitions to prevent these wolves in sheep's clothing from promoting outright murder on the airwaves. I'm furious." Both the Human Rights Campaign and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force released immediate statements deploring the perpetrators' murderous behaviors inspired by religious fanaticism in such fundamentalist groups as Gary Bauer's Family Research Council, James Dobson's Focus on the Family and D. James Kennedy's Coral Ridge Ministries. The Human Rights Campaign Calls for National Legislation The Human Rights Campaign's Education Director, Kim I. Mills, pointed to a climate of fear and hatred stirred up nationally by Religious fundamentalists and called for Congress to renew its efforts to pass national hate crimes legislation. "The savage beating and burning of Matthew Shepard did not occur in a vacuum. Crimes such as these arise out of minds twisted and misinformed about lesbian and gay people. The leaders of the most powerful religious political organizations -- some of which have headquarters right here in Colorado -- have made a strategic, political decision to target gays and lesbians," said Mills at a Ft. Collins press conference. Two men, Russell Arthur Henderson, 21, and Aaron James McKinney, whose age is unconfirmed, were charged with kidnapping aggravated robbery, and attempted first degree murder and held on $100,000 bond. University of Wyoming student, Chastity Vera Pasley, 20 and Kristen Leann Price, 18, were charged as accessories to the crime. Price was released on $30,000 bond and Pasely is still in jail in lieu of the same amount of money. There are no hate crimes laws in Wyoming and efforts to pass a law have been rebuffed repeatedly because critics have claimed it would give gay Americans "special rights." "There is nothing special about living life free of violence and nothing right about opposing laws that would help remedy this situation. Those who oppose hate crimes legislation are either burying their heads in the sand or they simply don't care that thousands of gay and lesbian Americans are being harassed and brutalized each year," said HRC Executive Director Elizabeth Birch. In July, both the House and Senate Judiciary Committees held hearings to amend current federal law to include sexual orientation, gender and disability and to expand federal law enforcement jurisdiction is an important step towards closing a loophole needed to assist Americans affected by hate motivated attacks.
A study released in August by Dr. Karen Franklin, a forensic psychologist at the Washington Institute for Mental Illness Research and Training, suggests that harassment and hate crimes against gay students by their peers is commonplace. According to the study, nearly one-quarter of community college students who took part in this survey admitted to harassing people they thought were gay. Among men, 18 percent said they had physically assaulted or threatened someone they thought was gay or lesbian. And 32 percent admitted they were guilty of verbal harassment. Hate crimes committed against gays, lesbians, and bisexuals make up the third-highest category of hate crimes reported to the FBI, currently representing 11.6% of all hate crimes reported. Only 21 states and the District of Columbia include sexual orientation-based crimes in their hate crimes statutes. While states continue to play the primary role in the prosecution of hate violence, the federal government must have jurisdiction to address those limited cases in which local authorities are either unable or unwilling to investigate and prosecute. NGLTF Blames Wyoming's Phobic Politicians & Preachers The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force linked Wyoming's violence to an increased climate of anti-gay hostility and political attacks made in nearby Fort Collins, in the Wyoming legislature, as well as in the U.S. Congress. "Anti-gay rhetoric and anti-gay violence go hand-in-hand," said Tracey Conaty, NGLTF communications director. "The right wing is creating the most hostile atmospheres for GLBT people in recent memory. Hate violence is a logical extension of these rhetorical, legislative, and electoral attacks, " she added. Last week in Fort Collins, Citizens for Constitutional Freedom, a right-wing opposition group ran a series of ads denouncing the measures and urging voters not to support "special rights" for homosexuals. A similar organization sponsored a forum with an "ex-gay" spokesperson, which claimed sexual orientation can be changed, and therefore does not deserve inclusion in Fort Collins' Human Rights Ordinance. Right wing forces in Wyoming have stymied passage of a hate crimes bill claiming it would give "special rights" to GLBT people. Nationally, right-wing organizations have hypocritically portrayed their anti-gay efforts as "compassionate and loving."
The Task Force has documented a link between increases in anti-gay violence and the escalation of anti-gay rhetoric during ballot initiative campaigns. Immediately before Colorado's Amendment 2 passed in 1992, Colorado activists documented a 129 percent increase in anti-gay assaults. In the two months following the vote, nearly 40 percent of the annual total was reported. Hattie Mae Cohen, a lesbian, and Brian Mock, a gay man, were killed when their home in Oregon was firebombed during that state's 1992 ballot battle. In Maine in 1995, incidents of anti-gay violence jumped to 10 during the six months of an anti-gay initiative campaign in 1995, compared to four incidents for the entire previous year. "When anti-gay rhetoric escalates, so does anti-gay violence. Hate crimes are a result of that intolerance," continued Conaty. "No one should condone violence against any group of people, nor should they contribute to an atmosphere that fosters such intolerance and violence." |
Ted Kennedy sponsored the Hate Crimes Prevention Act in the Senate 
Sen. Lott has called homosexuality a "disease" 