Nine years later, what’s our excuse, America?

October 13, 2007 by Pastor Dan.

Did the ninth anniversary of Matthew Shepard’s death pass so quietly that even I missed it? Neither the Los Angeles Times nor New York Times had anything to mark the October 12 tragedy.

In the meantime, the Matthew Shepard Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act is still stuck in Congress since it was introduced in March, and even if passed by both houses is expected to get the presidential veto. Could we expect anything more from the man who would veto SCHIP (State Children’s Health Insurance Programs )?

As you might expect, Wikipedia gives us the concise briefing: “The Matthew Shepard Act (officially, the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2007 or LLEHCPA), HR 1592 is a proposed federal bill that would expand the 1969 United States federal hate-crime law to include crimes motivated by a victim’s actual or perceived gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability.”

HR 1592 passed the Houses in amended form on May 3, and was referred to the Senate committee on the Judiciary You can track the bill’s every detail here. For reasons no reasonable person should have to ask, in September the good Senators attached the Matthew Shepard bill to a Defense Department authorization bill. While the Human Rights Campaign praised the Senate action, I am personally put off by one kind of thing being attached to another. I suppose that’s to try and slip something over and the opposition, but I would rather have an important piece of legislation rise or fall on its own merits. Let the opposition vote in favor of hate crimes but voting against a bill to help prevent them. Just let them vote without concealment or deceit. But that’s Congress for you!

Matthew Shepard is not forgotten. There is the Matthew Shepard Foundation which now annually awards “Honors” to important public recipients. His story has been made into a film, there are books. His mother Judy continues to be a force to be reckoned with.

In the meantime, Russell Henderson and Aaron McKinney were convicted of his murdered and are serving two consecutive life sentences. In the meantime, more lesbian, gay and transgender people have been viciously murdered in this country, and more killers are awaiting trial. In the meantime, hatred is still on the rise; Matthew Shepard was murdered by the September 11 disaster which only served to increase fear, distrust and hatred. Gwen Araujo was savagely murdered on October 4, 2002.

(In searching for a photo for this blog, I was surprised when Google found the well-known silhouette of Matthew Shepherd on the Lutherans Concerned/San Francisco web site. Thanks, dear friend Frank Loulan, for your article in 2004!)

When will it end? This coming World AIDS Day, Matthew would have been 31 years old. According to Wikipedia, Matthew “was described by his parents and good close friend from Orlando Florida Frankie J. McGraw, as ‘…an optimistic and accepting young man …[who]… had a special gift of relating to almost everyone. He was the type of person that was very approachable and always looked to new challenges. Matthew had a great passion for equality and always stood up for the acceptance of people’s differences.’”

I cannot imagine the life he could have lived, except for the hatred which took him away from us. Why do we let this happen? We don’t expect Senators to be courageous, but what about ourselves? What is our excuse?

—Pastor Dan Hooper, Los Angeles

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