Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Legislature Matthew Shepard's Father Says Lawmakers Creating 'Open Season' on Gays
Posted by Jeff Woods on Wed, Jan 25, 2012 at 1:50 PM
“The comment about stomping transgender people—that does encourage,” Dennis Shepard told a news conference. “What it does it says, 'Well, nobody’s going to do anything.' It creates a policy of it’s open season. That’s what happened to Matt. Wyoming is one of five states that has no hate crime law whatever. So when they beat him, fractured his skull in 18 places with a butt of a .357 and left him to die, they thought, ‘no harm, no foul.’” They thought, ‘Who’s going to do anything? It’s just another gay.’”
Shepard expressed sorrow over the suicides of Phillip Parker Jr., 14, an eighth-grader at Gordonsville High School, and Cheatham County High School senior Jacob Rogers, 18. Both students were victims of bullying.
“These bills disturb me, just the fact that they’ve been brought to the forefront and there’s so much publicity about them,” Shepard said. “I’m concerned about the kids. They are our most valuable asset. They are our hope for the future. We can’t afford to lose a single one. We’ve lost two in the last 30 days. We’ll never know what those two young men could have done to help the city, the state and the country.”
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Comments (4)
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The bills are not much for job creation are they? Or are they in an underhanded way?
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just out of curiosity, if Wyoming had a hate crime law, what sentences would the murderers have received that were greater than the double consecutive life sentences they each received? I really do not understand hate crime laws in circumstances where the act was committed during an already heinous crime.. I think we all agree murders like Shepard's was hate just by its nature, but would additional legislation or punishment really solve anything?
Not a political poke, just really do nit understand how hate legislation is supposed to fix problems.
reply to moost - I know Matthews parents. The murderers most likely would have gotten death, but Matthews father told the judge to make it only life imprisonment.
