One Step Forward For The Matthew Shepard Act

Bill Moves Out Of Committee By A Slim 15-12 Vote

 

 

The Federal Hate Crimes Bill is one step closer to reality. Despite the attempts of some Republican House members, like Louie Gohmert (R-TX), or Steve King (R-IA) who tried yesterday “to add ‘immutable characteristics’ such as eye color, hair color – or lack thereof”, and tried to change the bill’s name to the “Local Law Enforcement Thought Crimes Prevention Act of 2009″, and Duncan Hunter (R-CA) who have all vehemently opposed the legislation, the bill was approved by a slim margin of 15-12, and moves to the full House for a vote possibly next week.

I was reminded through a few interactions today about some of the folks who oppose the bill, and its namesake. As you remember, Matthew Shepard was tied to a fence, tortured, and beaten to death, for being gay. He was a college student, liked by many, and not even two months before his 22nd birthday, met a horrible fate just outside of Laramie, Wyoming. His murderers “attempted to use the “gay panic defense”, arguing that they were driven to temporary insanity by alleged sexual advances by Shepard. At another point they stated that they had only wanted to rob Shepard and never intended to kill him.”

On Twitter today, I came across this tweet from Janet Parshall:

Yup. “All Planned Parenthood cares about is money. #tcot”

Of course I went ballistic. I fired off a few tweets to her, and then reminded folks about Janet Parshall’s diusgusting video, “Silencing The Christians”, which I wrote about a few months ago. (You need to watch it to see how much hate can be wrapped up in self-serving religious extremism.) Then a friend on Twitter reminded me about Janet’s comments about Matthew Shepard. Via Media Matters:

“During a discussion about the implications of “the buzz around” the film Brokeback Mountain on CNN’s Larry King Live, radio host Janet Parshall referred to the adoption of children by same-sex couples as “state-sanctioned child abuse,” and implied that the “lifestyle” of Matthew Shepard, a gay man, was partly to blame for his 1998 murder.”

So, for all you folks who don’t believe we need a Hate Crimes Bill, for all you Janet Parshalls and Duncan Hunters and Steve Kings and Louie Gohmerts out there, remember this:

Matthew Shepard was 21 years old, five feet, two inches tall and weighed about one hundred pounds. If he were your son, your friend, you next door neighbor, what kind of a person are you to not have the humanity to want to have protected him from his awful death, and to not want to protect others from a similar fate?

Help the bill pass. Visit Fight Hate Now.