I remember October of 1998.
Specifically, I remember October 12, 1998. I was a college freshman at Ohio University, and during that week, I watched the tragic news unfold of Matthew Shepard's torture and death in Laramie, Wyoming.
To say I was shocked is putting it mildly.
For the first 18 years of my life, being out and gay was not even on my radar. Of course, I had thought about it, but I also recognized that I lived in Ohio and wasn't sure how out, and safe, I could be. In high school, I was one of 120 students in my class. At Ohio University, I was one of 20,000. The ability to be lost in a crowd gave me the confidence to explore the LGBT lifestyle.
Matthew's unimaginable experience hit me about two months into college. It was a rude awakening for me. Call it ignorance, or call it isolation, but I was absolutely frightened at the thought that my life, my being, could be the cause of such hatred and violence in others. What happened to Matthew forced my own closet doors, which were slowly opening, to be shut and locked for some time.
Earlier that year, on June 7, three white men chained James Byrd, an African American, to a pickup truck and dragged him to his death. The outpouring of sadness across all communities for Byrd's death was simply overwhelming.
Flash forward to October 28, 2009. President Obama signs the "Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act." The law basically expands existing hate-crime protections to outlaw attacks based on sexual orientation or gender, in addition to race, color religion or national origin. In his speech following the ceremonial signing, the President referenced a powerful statistic– during the past 10 years, there have been more than 12,000 hate crimes committed because of sexual orientation. And those are just the crimes that are reported. There are undoubtedly thousands — or dare I say it, millions– of others that go unreported because of a fear of law enforcement reaction.
Will the law create a safer place for the LGBT community in the U.S.? It's a giant leap in the right direction. What needs to follow is a grassroots campaign among LGBT organizations and local law enforcement agencies working together to establish clear, two-way communications strategies and create a safe haven for all people violated because of just being themselves.
Thank you Matthew and James. Your time on this earth was cut so tragically short, but your legacy will live on forever.
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