It is LGBT History Month and today
in LGBT marks the anniversary of the death of Matthew Shepard from injuries sustained
in an attack six days earlier. Shepard’s death was a hate crime and brought to
light hate crimes in America and even caused the creation of hate crime laws. So
I thought it would be a good idea to honor him today with a little look back at
the tragedy.
It was on the night of October 6,
1998 outside of Laramie, Wyoming that Shepard was beaten and tortured by Aaron
McKinney and Russell Henderson. They lured him out to a rural area and pistol
whipped and tortured him and tied to a fence and left him for dead. McKinney
and Henderson were not drunk or on drugs that night and after they left Matthew
for dead they returned to town and picked a fight with two Hispanic youths. Matthew
was beaten so badly that his face was so covered in blood that that the only
clean spots were those that had be cleaned by his tears. When he was found he
was in a coma and was died six days later on October 12, 1998. McKinney stated
in an interview that Henderson pretended to be gay to lure Matthew into his car
with the intent to rob him and McKinney attacked him after he put his hand on
his knee, McKinney stated to a detective that his violence was triggered by his
feelings toward gays.
Henderson pleaded guilty to murder
and kidnapping and in order to avoid the death penalty agreed to testify
against McKinney. He received two life sentences. During McKinney’s trial it
was argued that it was greed and violence that prompted the killing not Matthew’s
sexual orientation, they even argued the gay panic defense stating that he was
driven to temporary insanity by Matthew’s advances towards him. McKinney was
found guilty of felony murder and after a deal was brokered was sentenced to
two consecutive life terms.
This horrific murder brought to
light the need for hate crimes laws in America. When Matthew was killed under
federal and Wyoming state law crimes committed based on sexual orientation were
not prosecutable as hate crimes. A bill was first attempted in Wyoming House
and it failed in a 30-30 tie. Bill Clinton attempted to extend federal hate
crime legislation to include homosexuals and the US House rejected the efforts
in 1999. In September of 2000 Congress passed legislation, but it was stripped
out in conference committee. In March of 2007 the Matthew Shepard Act (H. R.
1592) was introduced to Congress, the bill passed however then President George
W. Bush said he would veto the legislation if it reached his desk. In December
2007 a bipartisan hate crimes legislation was attached to a DOD bill, but it
failed to pass. Nancy Pelosi was still committed to getting the Matthew Shepard
Act passed, she did not succeed. When Barack Obama was elected he was committed
to get the act passed. Finally on October 22, 2009, more than 10 years after
his death the Senate passed the act with a vote of 68-29, President Obama
signed the Act into law on October 28, 2009.
As much of a victory the passing of
this act is the fact that it took over 10 years from Matthew’s death for it to
pass was a real tragedy. To believe that it had passed back in 2007 and couldn’t
be signed into law because of the bias of one man makes me sad. It did however
pass and has left a legacy on the USA.
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