WASHINGTON — Everybody agrees it was a horrible way to treat a human being--an openly gay man beaten senseless on the Wyoming prairie and left alone to die in the frigid night tethered to a fence.
But Matthew Shepard's death, as disturbing as it is, has only reignited a set of questions that have slowed efforts to expand federal hate crimes laws: Just what is a hate crime? Should a crime against gays and lesbians be punished differently from one against other Americans? If hate crimes are punished separately, would it deter such violence or encourage it?
Shepard's death has given new energy to gay and lesbian activists who say existing laws fail to protect them from random violence.
"It is clear to every American that this was a hate crime," said Jeff Montgomery, executive director of the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs, a Michigan-based gay and lesbian rights organization. "This was a crime committed to send a message that says: 'Fags are not wanted here.' "
But many others, especially fundamentalist Christian activists, argue that extending hate crime laws to gays and lesbians would go too far, creating a new class of federally protected victims.
"All crime is hate crime," said Andrea Sheldon, executive director of the Traditional Values Coalition, an umbrella group of conservative religious organizations. "Is that poor boy any more dead because he was homosexual? We shouldn't label some crimes more hateful than other crimes to advance a political agenda."
Sheldon said Congress has no business creating what she described as a class of victimhood for gays and lesbians. "There are laws on the books to deal with crimes," she said, adding that homosexual activists are more interested in gaining acceptance than in crime.
"The reason they bring the Feds into this debate is that it's a way of legitimizing homosexual activity. They can't force the culture to accept their life but they are trying to do it legislatively."
President Clinton, in the wake of Shepard's death, urged Congress to pass legislation already introduced in the Senate that would make it easier to prove a hate crime against gays and women. "There is something we can do about this," Clinton said. "Congress needs to pass tough hate crimes legislation. It can do so even before it adjourns and it should do so."
