Violence against Gays. The Wyoming Murder
The following extract was taken from Yahoo news. {RUETERS}
A gay University of Wyoming student who was savagely beaten and strung up on a fence like a scarecrow in an attack denounced as a hate crime, died early Monday, hospital officials said.
Rulon Stacey, chief executive officer of the Poudre Valley Health System in Fort Collins, said Matthew Shepard, 21, died at 2:53 a.m. EDT (0653 GMT) Monday. His family was at his bedside.
Shepard was found Wednesday beaten and tied for up to 18 hours to a wooden fence where he was left to die just outside Laramie where he attended the University of Wyoming.
He was so severely beaten than when he was found by a passing motorist the person first thought the figure on the fence post was a scarecrow.
Charges against two men in custody were expected to be upgraded to first degree murder from attempted murder.
The attack stunned the small college town of Laramie, Wyoming, and prompted calls for more anti-hate crime legislation.
Wyoming Gov. Jim Geringer said he was ``deeply saddened''. ``We all feel a sense of tragedy and disbelief that a human life could be taken in such a brutal way.''
But Geringer said Matthew Shepard's father Dennis had ''cautioned that we should not use Matt as an excuse to further someone else's private agenda.''
Three attempts to pass an anti-hate law in Wyoming have been unsuccessful.
Shepard had been breathing with the aid of a respirator in the Fort Collins hospital, just across the Wyoming border, since Wednesday. He suffered a skull fracture that was so serious it made surgery impossible, Stacey told reporters.
Shepard's blood pressure began falling around midnight and his family was called to his bedside.
He died of his injuries rather than being removed from life support by his parents, Stacey said.
``They did not have to come to a point in the process where they were forced to make a decision. Life support remained with Matthew throughout the process,'' Stacey said.
``In fact they said (as) the caring son that he was, he was able to remove from them the guilt or stress of having to make that decision,'' said the hospital administrator, nearly breaking down in tears.
His parents, Judy and Dennis Shepard, flew to Colorado from Saudi Arabia where the father works in the oil industry. Stacey said the parents were overwhelmed by the outpouring of support for their son.
President Clinton said Shepard's death made clear that Congress should pass proposed legislation that would extend the federal law on hate crimes to include violence against homosexuals, gender-motivated attacks and attacks on the disabled.
Clinton, who had spoken to Shepard's family Saturday, also appealed to Americans to be more tolerant.
``I hope that in the grief of this moment for Matthew Shepard's family and in the shared outrage across America, Americans will once again search their hearts and do what they can to reduce their own fear and anxiety and anger at people who are different,'' he said.
Two men, Russell A. Henderson and Aaron McKinney, are in custody for the attack and their girlfriends, who allegedly provided them an alibi and helped hide bloody clothes, have been charged as accessories after the fact.
Police believe robbery as well as gay bashing was a motivation in the crime.
Bill McKinney, the father of suspect Aaron McKinney, and Kristen Price, Aaron's girlfriend who was also charged in the case, have said the two men accused of the attack targeted Shepard because he had flirted with Aaron McKinney at a bar and embarrassed him, a published report said Sunday.
THE HOMOSEXUAL WHO WAS SEVERELY BEATEN
Written by Robert T. Lee on Tue. October 18, 1998
As a minister, I've been asked how I feel about the recent incident in Laramie, Wyomin in which two guys allegedly severely beat the homosexual who later died . This is my response:
Homosexuality is a heinous crime atleast equal to murder. Since it is so, God has made all governments responsible to impose a negative sentiment and a holy indignation within the societies against homosexuality and to sentence all homosexuals to death (Leviticus 20:13). But america rejects the responsiblity God requires of it and foolishly protects the crime of homosexuality as a so-called "right."
However, even though america refuses to impose the death penalty against homosexuality, that does not give private citizens the right to take the law in their own hands unless their lives or welfare are threatened by gays.
Reliable accounts say that the homosexual made a pass towards one of the men, which only rightly inflamed the wrath of the men who beat him. Therefore, although the two men are guilty of taking the law into their own hands by beating the homosexual, yet by so doing, they did far better than the government by helping get rid of one who should have been put to death by the government.
The crime those men committed is not a heinous one - certainly not as heinous as homosexuality. The sentence they will receive should be a very light one since they removed a small piece of the heinous homosexual plague from the society that should have been removed by the government.
It is not that these men severely beat an innocent person. But they beat a high criminal in the sight of God as a result of this homosexual criminal making a pass at one of them. The homosexual really got what he deserved. Gays have rightfully lost their right to life by virtue of their homosexuality.
God, mankind's Creator, who knows what is best for mankind simply because He is their Creator, says, "If there is a man who lies with a male as those who lie with a woman, both of them have committed a detestable act; they shall surely be put to death. Their bloodguiltiness is upon them" (Leviticus 20:13).
Now when is the government going to start doing what it is suppose to do?
25th October 1998
It has been a while for me to respond to this as I have been in debate with 'similar minded' individuals in the alt.atheism newsgroup. Mr Lee is sadly not alone in his opinions...
This makes quite disturbing reading.
A man's life was taken away by two violent thugs. Their sole excuse was because he 'embarrassed' them, because he was gay. This was an excuse?!? Apparently Mr Lee thinks so.
Because the bible says so.
We all know that the bible has it's flaws. The book of Leviticus which Mr Lee is so fond of is full of such idiocies.
The bible is supposed to be a book of 'good news' and provide moral teachings to it's followers. And yet we see it used as a tool for hate all too often.
'Thou shalt not kill' is one of the ten commandments. Surely that should be more important than a frequently quoted passage from Leviticus!
Once more I find myself utterly disgusted by the teachings of Mr Lee. Hate Monger. Homophobe. "True Christian?"
There is little more I can add which hasn't been said already over the world. Condemnation for this attrocity is almost unamimous. Hopefully some good may come out of it.
BACK
I would like to make it clear that all texts by Mr Lee are not altered in any way to make my claims any stronger. Spelling mistakes are as they were in the originals. And the intellectual copyright for each article remains with Mr Lee