Homosexuality is sexual attraction to persons of the same sex and sexual activity with another person of the same sex. It is one of the biggest issues of our time. The case of Matthew Sheppard shows how far discrimination can lead. Hopefully progress have been made on homosexual discrimination.
It is important to know that homophobia kills. This is the case of Matthew Shepard. Matthew Shepard was born on December 1st, 1976 in Casper Wyoming in the United States, and died on October 12th, 1998 in Fort Collins, Colorado. He was a student at the University of Wyoming and he was murdered by two young men at the age of 21, because he was gay. On October 6th, 1998, Matthew Shepard went out alone in the Fireside Bar in Laramie, Wyoming, as his friends had refused his invitation for different reasons. Left alone, Matthew was approached by two young men who asked him if he was gay. After he said yes, he was offered a ride. But the young men took Matthew outside the city, brought him out of the car and pistol-whipped him. Matthew’s assailants tied him to a fence, beat him to break his skull, and left him die. Still tied to the fence, Shepard, who was still alive but in a coma, was discovered by Aaron Kreifels, a cyclist who initially mistook Shepard for a scarecrow. Emergency vehicles arrived 18 hours after the attack and brought him back to the Poudre Valley Hospital, Colorado, where he died on the evening of Monday, October 12, after several days in a coma, surrounded by his family.
The reactions were numerous and varied. After the announcement of Matthew’s death, gay associations reacted by organizing “candlelight vigils,” that is to say vigils where everyone comes with a candle. The purpose was twofold: to come together to make a silent tribute to Matthew and to demand the adoption of the law against hate crimes to prevent this tragedy from happening again. The first vigil was held on October 15th in Washington on the Capitol steps. More than 5,000 people gathered there and listened to the speeches by Matthew’s friends, famous people, representatives of gay and humanitarian associations, and political figures. On October 16th, the day of Matthew’s funeral, anti-gay fundamentalist Protestants, led by Reverend Fred Phelps, appeared near the church where the ceremony was taking place and cried, “God hates fags” and “Matt in hell”. Romaine Patterson, one of Matthew’s friend, held a counter-demonstration. People wearing white robes and gigantic wings (looking like angels) gathered around the group of homophobes, allowing the funeral to take place in respect. In 1999, the two murderers of Matthew Shepard, Russell Henderson and Aaron McKinney, then aged 21 and 22, were sentenced to life imprisonment without any possibility of release. The story of Matthew Shepard inspired three films: The Laramie Project (based on the play of the same name), The Matthew Shepard Story and Anatomy of a Hate Crime. The Laramie Project and The Matthew Shepard Story both won numerous awards.
The modern world abolished capital punishment for sodomy in several countries in the nineteenth century and decriminalized homosexuality in the twentieth century. Although this trend seems to have made an enormous step in two centuries, especially involving Berlin and Paris in the beginning, sometimes the repression of homosexuality was normal. Despite their image and their stereotypical values, the U.S. military would also have to tolerate more diversity in troops. Unfortunately, today, the progress of the late twentieth century was haunted by the development of AIDS. The fight of the twenty-first century is now for equal rights and freedoms, for example, the right to marry and to adopt a child jointly. A law against hate crimes was filed on March 20th, 2007, on behalf of Matthew Shepard. It went to the Senate of the United States, but President George W. Bush said he would veto it. Reintroduced several times under different names, the Matthew Shepard Act was passed by the House of Representatives on October 8th, 2009. It was passed by the Senate on October 22nd, 2009, and it was finally signed by the President of the United States Barack Obama Wednesday, on October 28th, 2009 .
Sources :
– Pickett, Brent, “Homosexuality”, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2011 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = <http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2011/entries/homosexuality/>.
– “homosexuality.” Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2011. Web. 14 Nov. 2011. <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/270637/homosexuality>.
– http://www.matthewshepard.org/
– http://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=277685&page=1/
- US Civilization - 