On October 12th, 1998, Matthew Shepard died from injuries incurred during a savage beating. He had been “robbed, pistol whipped, tortured, tied to a fence in a remote, rural area, and left to die.” When he was found eighteen hours later, in a coma, his accidental rescuer thought he was a scarecrow. The only parts of his face that weren’t covered in blood were where his tears had washed it away. His killers and several people who knew them all admitted that Matthew was treated this way because he was gay.
Ten years later, the Matthew Shepard Act is on the verge of being a reality.
Please take a moment and watch this heartwarming message from Matthew’s mother:
This law, also known as H.R.1592 or the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2007, stands a good chance of being passed by the House and Senate, and signed into federal law by the President of the United States of America. It expands current hate crime legislation to include the victim’s actual or perceived gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability.
The specific language of the bill refers to an individual who “willfully causes bodily injury to any person or, through the use of fire, a firearm, or an explosive or incendiary device, attempts to cause bodily injury to any person, because of the actual or perceived religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability of any person.”
Here’s what it does NOT do: It doesn’t “muzzle people of faith who dare to express their moral and biblical concerns about homosexuality,” as James Dobson from “Focus on the Family” would have us believe. Yes, there is a public outcry from the religious right, saying that priests, ministers, pastors, etc. will be felons if they preach that homosexuals are sinners and that being gay is against God’s will.
Shut the hell up. That’s a RIDICULOUS argument, and it only goes to show how prejudiced and TERRIFIED these small-minded bigots really are. In fact, the language of the bill specifically “Provides that nothing in this Act shall be construed to prohibit expressive conduct or activities protected by the First Amendment.”
It’s as simple as that.
