By Jason Marsden, Executive Director of the Matthew Shepard Foundation One of the most remarkable elements of Matt Shepard’s continuing legacy is the powerful inspiration his life and death have provided to artists of every genre. He has motivated painters, poets, sculptors, authors, librettists, playwrights and pop stars. His story has been adapted and re-adapted,…
The Indiana Senate passed legislation that would create the state’s first hate crimes law to address bias crimes against “perceived or actual race, religion, color, sex, gender identity, disability, national origin, ancestry or sexual orientation.” Indiana is just one of five states that doesn’t currently have a hate crimes law. Many observers see this bill,…
Across the country, legislators are making attempts to pass state hate crime statutes that would include crimes motivated by sexual orientation or gender identity. In a January op-ed for the Washington Post, Judy and Dennis Shepard stated that there “simply shouldn’t be political controversy about acknowledging that violence is happening against certain people,” and that hate crimes against LGBTQ+ people are the most common second only to racial bias. Yet, these state-level laws continue to face dangerous opposition based in fear and misinformation. Here are some of the most common myths used to argue against hate crime laws, and the truth you can use to debunk them.
To our friends and supporters, new and established, In the past month, we have been overwhelmed by the outpouring of letters and emails from all of you sending support and encouragement. At the beginning of December, Matt Shepard is a Friend of Mine—a documentary sharing Matt’s story as told by those who knew and loved…
By Dennis Shepard, Co-Founder Not so long ago, the elements of a recent pro basketball player’s actions probably would have generated a few worrisome and negative headlines. “NBAer stalks, hurls anti-gay slurs at ref.” “Pro basketball probe into gay slur drags on into 2nd week.” “Gay NBA ref outs self, cites at-risk youth.” But this…
In all of 2014, law enforcement agencies in Kansas City, Kansas, reported one hate crime incident. In that incident the victim was targeted because of the offender’s bias against the victim’s race. For a city with a population of nearly 150,000, one reported hate crime is a significantly low and likely inaccurate number. But, sadly,…
[View the story “National Organizations, Experts Discuss Hate Crimes Reporting & Prevention” on Storify]
The 2014 hate crimes statistics, released this morning by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, show small signs of improvement with a slight uptick in the number of participating law enforcement agencies and fewer reported incidents of hate crimes. But while reporting remains voluntary and with many cities with populations over 100,000 consistently reporting zero each…
On this day in 2009, President Barack Obama signed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act into law, marking the inclusion of language for sexual orientation and gender identity and expression into the federal hate crimes law. For the past six years, the Matthew Shepard Foundation has been able to better…
