MATTHEW SHEPARD AND HATE CRIMES, REVISITED

2/25/99

By David Virtue

News Commentary

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Matthew Wayne Shepard, 21, who was an acolyte in his local Episcopal parish (St. Mark's, Casper, Wyoming), was actively involved in the gay lifestyle, by all accounts. He also had AIDS.

Shepard was killed after soliciting gay sex from two Marlboro Men-types in a straight bar in Laramie, Wyoming last year. According to a Laramie police sergeant who investigated the case, though, Shepard was robbed for money, with sexual orientation playing only "minor overtones" in the incident. "The evidence shows that he was lured out of the bar by these men, who said they were gay, but their sole purpose was to rob him," said sergeant De Bree. "Kidnapping with robbery was the primary intent." The two suspects have been charged with first degree murder and aggravated robbery. "We were not treating this as a hate crime. It is not one," he said.

Yet, Shepard has become the "hate crimes" poster boy for homosexual activists, not least those in ECUSA, who also seem to want us to see a direct causal relationship between Lambeth's orthodox sexuality resolution and the murder of this gay Episcopalian in Wyoming. The Integrity booth at the Diocese of Washington's recent convention at the National Cathedral, for example, featured a kind of shrine to Shepherd, complete with votive candles, a life-size portrait of the young man, and literature portraying him as a victim and hero.

What really motivated, or led to, Matthew Shepard's murder? Was it chiefly hate--the hate of the two suspects, or what some see as Lambeth's brand of it?

Some newspaper reports allege that Mr. Shepard was cruising for `rough trade' when he met the two suspects. For the unenlightened, `rough trade' means that Shepard was looking for anal sex involving certain accouterments; sex his mother never dreamed of. He was also soliciting it in a highly risky venue; Laramie is a far cry, geographically and culturally, from places like San Francisco or New York.

His mother, Judy Shepard, later admitted on Dateline NBC that her son had solicited gay sex once before and had gotten beaten up for it. She also admitted that her son was HIV-positive, adding that he was probably unaware that he was infected. Speaking candidly, she said, "You must understand, it's like putting him on a pedestal that just won't work." She also said her son was clinically depressed.

So: Mr. Shepard, certainly, was a victim; a victim of murder. But he engaged in risky behavior. He was nowhere near the "committed same-sex relationship" model pushed by liberals in ECUSA. Had he also victimized others? Was he having unprotected sex with other men, and passing the AIDS virus on to them? If so, the fact that he might not have known he was infected doesn't carry much weight, as any one of any orientation who has promiscuous, unprotected sex today has good reason to believe they are infected. Perhaps a charge of--at least--involuntary manslaughter could be leveled at him.

In short, that Shepard died under the circumstances he did is a tragedy. But to make out that Shepard was some kind of a "tragic hero" and "courageous martyr" as his friends, colleagues and clergy would like us to believe strains credibility; even his own mother doesn't buy it.

Equally absurd is for the Rev. Bill Bacon, rector of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Fort Collins, Colorado to say that Lambeth's sexuality resolution was "obscene," implying that it was somehow responsible for Mr. Shepard's death. Orthodoxy does not condone homosexual behavior, but neither does it condone murder. Bacon's statement is also insulting to African bishops who deal with the AIDS epidemic every day of their lives.

Bacon is saying, in effect, that Shepard's death was caused by 526 bishops who rejected a behavior so dangerous that millions of men have died on the phallic cross of their own desires.

The real "hate crime" here is that a young man who clearly needed help for an addictive, destructive behavior, failed to get it from his church, because many of its leaders have now said gay behavior is okay. They've said homosexuals can't possibly change and it is wrong to subject them to any attempt to help them overcome their harmful practices.

Instead, Shepard died violently at the hands of two men he solicited for anal sex. But even if he had escaped this fate, he probably would have died an early death from AIDS.

And to round off this insanity, some have said that Mr. Shepard should be nominated TIME magazine's Man of the Year.

So, long live sexual pluriformity. Long live immorality.

After all, you have nothing to lose but your life.