I really haven't been all that involved, per se. My husband's a highway patrolman, so that's really the only way that I've known about it.
Now when I first found out, I just thought it was horrible. I just, I can't... Nobody deserves that! I don't care who you are.
But, the other thing that was not brought out... at the same time that happened, that patrolman was killed. And there was nothing. Nothing. They didn't say anything about the old man that killed him. He was driving down the road and he shouldn't have been driving and killed him. It was just a little piece in the paper. And we lost one of our guys.
More under the cut
You know, my husband worked with him. This man was brand new on the force. But I mean, here's one of ours, and it was just a little piece in the paper.
And a lot of it is my feeling that the media is portraying Matthew Shepard as a saint. And making him as a martyr. And I don't think he was. I don't think he was that pure.
Now, I didn't know him, but... there's just so many thing about him that I found out that I just, it's scary. You know about his character and spreading AIDS and a few other things. You know, being the kind of person that he was, he was just a barfly, you know. And I think he pushed himself around. I think he flaunted it.
Everybody's got problems. But why they exemplified him I don't know. What's the difference if you're gay? A hate crime is a hate crime. If you murder somebody you hate 'em. It has nothing to do with if you're gay or a prostitute or whatever.
I don't understand. I don't understand.
-- Sherry Johnson- The Laramie Project
Today, the US congress passed (as part of a must pass Defense Bill) was a law that will expand hate crime legislation to include sexual orientation, sexual identity, gender, and disability. The bill is named after Matthew Shepard who, in October 1998, was beaten, tied, and left for dead on the outskirts of Laramie Wyoming. 11 years to the month later, this legislation has finally passed, and will apply to all 50 states.
So why the above passage?
When I was rehearsing for the Monmouth College production of "The Laramie Project" in 2003, a frank discussion broke out on Hate Crime Legislation and whether it was needed. Our cast, was divided. How could you be in such a play, with the subject matter of such meaningless violence, and be against hate crime legislation?
This passage showed the ugly, but still valid argument. If you murder somebody, you hate 'em.
Sherry Johnson had some facts wrong, but her feelings, her emotion, were real and valid. It is not a comfortable scene, and standing on stage, right after I (playing the character Harry Woods) talked about feeling such emotion after seeing people rally behind a banner for Matthew during the University of Wyoming's Homecoming parade, and a single spotlight frames on Sherry (who was played by the magnificent and wonderful Lindsey Markel) as she spoke those words is a memory that sears in my mind so profoundly. I remember the inflection of Lindsey's voice as she said those words. I never saw her face as she spoke them, but she gave Sherry justice. She didn't make her a horrible person, but she made her a complicated one. There was anger, but also misunderstanding. Why? all crime is hate, why does there need to be special rules for certain groups? It is a powerful question, and in 2003, I couldn't completely answer with any satisfaction. It left me questioning why do we need hate crime legislation.
In 2009, I may be finally able to answer a bit better.
A crime is a crime, as we all know. There are crimes of passion, crimes of greed, and crimes of hate. Sometimes it is a crime of hate against a person. Sometimes, it is a crime of hate against what that person represents. It is not fair, it is not kind, but it is true. We have seen crimes perpetrated to attack a movement, a group of people, and a society. In 1998, a Black man was dragged to death by three men in a truck, for no other reason than he was black. Months later, a man was beaten and left for dead (and eventually died) in Wyoming for no other reason other than he was Gay. In 2001, 19 men flew planes into buildings to kill Americans, for no other reason than they were Americans. That level of hate becomes terrorism. Terrorism towards a group changes the way you feel, the way you act, and the way you carry on. True, the death of James Byrd Jr. and Matthew Shepard may pale in comparison to my third example, but it is no less devastating to those who lived it, the people who sat at home and wondered, "could that have been me?" "Could I be next?"
We prosecute people under the banner or "terror" and inciting fear to a large group of people. Regardless of the number of people, it is considered an unforgivable act. It is not to specially punish a person for their actions towards one person... but rather punish a person for their actions fueled by nothing but bigotry and hatred.
Jasper, Laramie, New York, Oklahoma City, and Lincoln. They all are places where hate and bigotry took the lives of people whose only crime was they were being themselves. They died as a result of nothing they did, but simply by being at the wrong place at the wrong time. Their deaths were to be an example to others who would walk in their footsteps: you are hated, you are not wanted here, and you will never be accepted, and you will be punished for nothing you are responsible for.
That is why Federal Hate Crime Legislation is so important, it says that terror, in any form, has no place here.
That is what I have learn, and I understand why we need it.