From Hate Crimes to Human Rights: A Tribute to Matthew Shepard

This scholarly work, dedicated to the memory of Matthew Shepard, whose brutal homophobic killing mobilized a nation to cry out in anger and shame, is an important contributor to the understanding of the basis of crimes of violence against minority groups targeted by a shameful segment of the majority. As a research project with multiple contributors, the legal definition of a hate crime is provided as the basis of explaining the reasons that acts of violence against minorities qualify as hate crimes, the origins of various prejudices that fuel and "justify" acts of violence and how many states have failed or ignored the cry to enhance the legal sanctions for acts of violence based solely on prejudice, racism, homophobia and other dynamics that figure into the equation. In addition to addressing prejudice as it applies to the individual, the research here also addresses the prejudice that is inherent in society and some of its institutions and how their discrimination against certain minorities constitute a form of violence (societal vs. individual). It is somewhat disgraceful how many are the states which have not even acknowledged the existence of institutional hate crimes much less provided equal redress. One cannot help but be moved by either anger or shame at the violence perpetrated on people solely on the basis of their sexual orientation, religion, gender, race and national origin, among others. But as other public figures through U.S. history turned their anger and shame into action for equality, this project issues a call to action that empowers the targets of hate crimes with judicial and societal equality. That action alone may well be the optimal expression to the memory of a young, young man whose ultimate death began tied to a fence on a cold, wind-swept Wyoming prairie.

I am a grad student in psychology doing a thesis on gay/lesbian hate crimes. This volume is moving and insightful. I wish the editors had included info from Gregory Herek, who is a leader in the field. All in all a good read with good info.