Wagist

11 Years for Justice

Posted on October 28, 2009 by Alex Halpern

Eleven years ago today, Mathew Shepard was robbed, tortured, tied to a fence post and left to die outside of Laramie, Wyoming. His murderers were two small-time crooks named Russell Arthur Anderson and Aaron James McKinney. The motive for Shepard’s brutal death was his sexuality. The two men lured Shepard into their truck, drove him to the middle of nowhere and killed him because he was gay.

Now, on the anniversary of Mathew Shepard’s death, President Obama has signed into law the most sweeping hate crimes legislation in history. This law, the Matthew Shepard & James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, gives the U.S. Justice Department unprecedented abilities to assume jurisdiction over attacks on minorities and for the first time extends the protections of the Civil Rights Act to homosexuals. While it is a national embarrassment that eleven years have passed since the 1998 deaths of Mathew Shepard and James Byrd Jr., an African-American Texan who was dragged behind a car until he died, it is a relief that President Obama has seen the importance of such a protection.

While this is a victory for minorities across this country and a tremendous step forward to true equality, the circumstances behind the passing of this amendment show that there is still a long way to go before distinctions like race, religion, sexual preference or gender become an anachronism rather than an identifier. There was no ticker tape parade today, as there should have been. Instead the amendment was rushed through and out of Congress hidden in a defense appropriations bill that the Republicans could not afford to vote against. That there are legislators in this country, not just citizens but elected officials in Washington supposedly to protect the rights of their constituents, that do not believe in the preservation of the rights of the minority is a disgrace.

As the first decade of the 21st Century comes to a close we find ourselves still fighting the same battles with the same bigots. The targets of their hatred have changed somewhat and if it’s possible their rationalizations and motivations have gotten more warped and ignorant. The only way to combat these people, the same people that hide behind an American flag and a Christian cross to justify their fanaticism, is through education. This must be an issue brought to the forefront of American discussion, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 did not end racism and the Shepard-Byrd Amendment will not end intolerance and bigotry towards gays and lesbians.

While I am proud of President Obama for ensuring that this amendment became law, it must be a first step and not a token gesture to the LGBT community. It is long past the time to repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and the Defense of Marriage Act and we must continue educating Americans to embrace our differences rather than fear them.