Word: gays
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...this past weekend, Matthew Shepard died. He was 21 but looked maybe 17, and everyone who knew him called him Matt, never the more formal Matthew. He was mostly still a kid, but he became an international symbol after two men he met in a bar pretended to be gay, lured him into a truck, savagely beat him and left him to die tied to a fence on the outskirts of Laramie, Wyo. He held on for five days after being found but never recovered consciousness...
...years since, Shepard's mother Judy has become one of the nation's most persuasive representatives for gay equality. I first met Judy Shepard five years ago, when I was reporting on how Wyoming had changed since her son was murdered. She is a small, disarmingly direct woman. The other day, when I asked her how she was doing, she simply responded, "Tired." She had just spoken at two events in Washington, and she had attended the dedication of a park bench in Laramie built for her son. She had also made time to do interviews with more reporters than...
Hate-crimes laws feel great to enact, but they criminalize something vital in a democracy: the right to be wrong. Let's say you chop off my arm because I'm gay. I would hope you go to prison for a long time, but should your sentence be even longer just because I sleep with guys and you disapprove? Don't people have a First Amendment right to disapprove? When did the U.S. government get into the business of criminalizing people's thoughts...
Under the current, limited hate-crimes laws, bias crimes have fallen. According to FBI figures, in 1995, there were 24 hate crimes based on race for every 1 million Americans; in 2006 - the most recent year for which data are available - there were 16. Anti-gay hate crimes have fallen from 5.2 per 1 million to 4.7 per 1 million - not a huge drop, but a statistically significant one. Would a broader hate-crimes law have reduced these figures even further? I doubt it. Even if a violent criminal knows that a tough hate-crimes law exists, wouldn't that...
This explains why gay donors around the country are pouring money into a few key state senate races in New York. If they are successful, they will help win same-sex marriage for New Yorkers without our having to beg for equality from judges who take pity on how glum our lives are. If gays can help win in New York, we will prove that the Connecticut justices are right about marriage but wrong about gay political power...