Hate Crimes Archive
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10/9/98--Openly Gay Student Attacked in Wyo. Associated Press. "A gay student at the University of Wyoming was savagely beaten, burned and left to die tied to a wooden fence outside Laramie, 30 miles northwest of Cheyenne." |
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10/9/98 -- 7:36 PM--UW student found brutally beaten: Victim in critical condition, three charged in attack. The Branding Iron (University of Wyoming student paper). Jay O'Brien, Eric Rohr. "Beaten and strung up to a buck fence, UW student Matthew Shepard was found unconscious by two bicyclists on Snowy Mountain View Road Wednesday afternoon. Shepard, 22, was laying in a coma at press time after being found in what the Laramie Police Department and Albany County Sheriff's office have deemed an alleged murder attempt. Three suspects were named in connection with the crime." (Includes related articles: Four suspects charged in attempted murder case; Call to action (OpEd); Media storms UW campus; UW President Philip Dubois speaks on Shepard attack; Friends dispute Shepard's openness on sexuality; Student Reaction sparks petition; Organization's president still plans Gay Awareness week; and Campus reaction to Shephard hate crime strong) |
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10/9/98 -- National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Press Release. TASK FORCE CONDEMNS SAVAGE BASHING; CHARGES RIGHT WING WITH INCREASE IN ANTI-GAY RHETORIC. "The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force condemned Tuesday s gay bashing in Laramie, Wyoming where a student was severely burned, beaten, and left to die. The Task Force linked the violence to an increased climate of anti-gay hostility and political attacks in nearby Fort Collins, the Wyoming legislature, and in the US Congress." |
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10/10/98 -- Matthew Shepard Medical Update. "This is the medical update for Matthew Shepard as of 9 p.m. October 10." |
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10/10/98 -- Hate in 'cowboy' country. Arizona Republic. E.N. Smith. "A gay University of Wyoming student was beaten, burned and tied to a wooden ranch fence like a scarecrow until a passer-by found him near death a half-day later." |
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10/10/98 -- Beating victim begged for life. Denver Post. Jim Hughes. "Tied to a wooden fence along an old dirt road, the weight of his small body sagging against the cheap utility cord, Matthew Shepard begged for his life as his attackers pistol-whipped him, according to allegations read in court Friday. But the assailants kept hitting the 21-year-old gay college student with the butt of a .357 Magnum until they believed he was dead. They broke his skull. Then they took his wallet, his patent leather shoes and took off to burglarize his house." |
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10/10/98 -- Clinton urges tougher hate-crime law after gay student attacked. CNN. "President Clinton asked the nation Saturday to join him in praying for Matthew Shepard, a gay student at the University of Wyoming who was critically injured this week in a brutal beating." |
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10/10/98 -- STATEMENT BY PRESIDENT CLINTON on the Matthew Shepard attack. Office of the Press Secretary, The White House. |
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10/10/98 -- 8:20 a.m. EDT--Gay Wyoming student dies from beating. CNN, Associated Press, Reuters. "A gay University of Wyoming student who was pistol-whipped and lashed to a fence post in an attack denounced nationwide as a hate crime died from his injuries early Monday morning without regaining consciousness. Matthew Shepard, 21, died while on full life support, Rulon Stacey, the chief executive officer of Poudre Valley Hospital, told reporters." |
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10/11/98 -- "Beating not a hate crime, suspect's family says." Denver Post. Jim Hughes and David Olinger. "The two men accused of bludgeoning a gay college student targeted him because he flirted with one of them at a bar, the father and girlfriend of a suspect said Saturday. Aaron James McKinney and Russell Arthur Henderson never set out to nearly kill University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard, McKinney's father and girlfriend said." |
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10/11/98 -- Suspect's family: "Not a hate crime." UPI. "The two suspects in the savage beating of an openly gay University of Wyoming student allegedly targeted Matthew Shepard because he flirted with them at a bar." |
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10/11/98 -- Gay Student Beaten In Apparent Hate Crime: Wyoming Student Begged For Life. KOIN 6 News, Laramie. "He flirted with them. That's the story from the girlfriend of one of two men charged with brutally attacking Matthew Shepard, says The Associated Press. Shepard, 22, is a Wyoming college student - and he's openly gay. Police suspect he was attacked because he is gay, but Kristen Price says the attack on Shepard was not a hate crime. Price says her boyfriend was embarrassed that Shepard made passes at him at a bar Tuesday night." |
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10/12/98 -- Matthew Shepard Medical Update. "This is the medical update for Matthew Shepard for 10:30 a.m. October 12, 1998. Funeral arrangements have been made for Matthew Shepard. Services will be held at Saint Mark's Episcopal Church in Casper, Wyoming on Saturday, October 17th at 1:30 p.m. Family and friends will be given priority seating and others will be accommodated as space permits. No further information is available at this time." |
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10/12/98 -- University of Wyoming Attack Turns Fatal: Gay Student Dies from Injuries. Associated Press, ABCNEWS, E.N. Smith. "A gay University of Wyoming student who was pistol-whipped and lashed to a fence post in an attack denounced nationwide as a hate crime died early today from his injuries. Matthew Shepard, 21, died while on life support, Poudre Valley Hospital spokesman Gary Kimsey said &. Police have said robbery was the primary motive for the attack. But gay rights groups and others assailed the beating and called on Wyoming legislators to adopt laws to deter crimes against homosexuals." |
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10/12/98 -- Wyoming Gov: 'Strictest Punishment Possible. "Wyoming's governor says the two men suspected of beating a gay college student to death should face the strictest punishment possible." |
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10/12/98 -- Suspect's Father Denies Wyoming Beating Hate Crime. Reuters. "The father of a suspect in the beating of a University of Wyoming student denied contentions the attack was a hate crime, saying the victim had embarrassed the suspect, a newspaper reported Sunday." |
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10/12/98 -- After Beating of Gay Man, Town Looks at Its Attitudes. New York Times. JAMES BROOKE. "As a gay college student lay hospitalized in critical condition after a severe beating here, this small city, which bills itself as "Wyoming's hometown," wrestled with its attitudes towards gay men." |
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10/12/98 -- Supporters honor victim. Katherine Vogt. Denver Post. "A grieving community banded together Sunday evening to pray for peace and voice outrage at what has been characterized as a hate crime. The 21-year-old University of Wyoming student was found tied to a post Wednesday, severely beaten and left to die. Authorities have characterized the attack as a hate crime, saying Shepard was targeted because he is openly gay." |
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10/12/98 -- Wyoming student dies from beating. Associated Press, Denver Post. E.N. Smith. "A gay University of Wyoming student who was pistol-whipped and lashed to a fence post in an attack denounced nationwide as a hate crime died from his injuries, hospital officials said early today &. The family was grateful they did not have to make a decision regarding whether or not to continue life support for their son. Like the good caring son that he was he was able to remove from them the guilt or stress of having to make that decision, Poudre Valley Hospital CEO Rulon Stacey told a news conference." |
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10/12/98 -- 7:14 AM ET Wyoming Student Who Was Savagely Beaten Dies. Reuters. "A University of Wyoming student savagely beaten in what police said may have been a hate crime died overnight, a hospital spokesman said Monday. Matthew Shepard, 21, had been breathing with the aid of a ventilator after he was beaten and left tied to a wooden fence just outside Laramie, Wyoming." |
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10/12/98 -- 8:20 a.m. Gay Wyoming student dies from beating. Associated Press & Reuters. "A gay University of Wyoming student who was pistol-whipped and lashed to a fence post in an attack denounced nationwide as a hate crime died from his injuries early Monday morning without regaining consciousness." |
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10/12/98 -- 9:39 AM EDT--Gay Wyoming College Student Dies After Beating. Reuters."A University of Wyoming student savagely beaten in an apparent hate crime because he was gay died early Monday, a Colorado hospital said. Rulon Stacey, chief executive officer of the Poudre Valley Health System, told reporters Matthew Shepard, 21, died at 12:53 a.m. MDT (2:53 a.m. EDT) Monday. His family was at his bedside." |
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10/12/98 -- 17:13 EDT--Wyoming Has No Hate-Crime Law. ROBIN McDOWELL. Associated Press. "Twenty-one states have hate-crime laws that cover offenses based on sexual orientation, but not Wyoming, where a 21-year-old gay student was beaten to death. Efforts to pass a hate-crime law in Wyoming have failed repeatedly because critics have said it would give homosexuals and others special rights." |
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10/12/98 -- 18:10 EDT--Victim Cautious About Gay Lifestyle. E.N. SMITH. Associated Press. "Slightly built, with features one friend described as feminine, Matthew Shepard worried how his homosexuality would be perceived as he headed to college in Wyoming. Shepard, a Wyoming native who finished high school in Switzerland, died early Monday from injuries in a brutal beating being denounced as a hate crime. Two young men arrested in the attack now face murder charges." |
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10/13/98 -- Anti-gay group plans to protest funeral. Associated Press. "A Topeka, Kan., church whose members regularly engage in anti-homosexual picketing plans to demonstrate at the funeral of a 21-year-old University of Wyoming student who officials say was tortured because he was gay. Since 1991, Westboro Baptist's the Rev. Fred Phelps and his followers began what he calls a ministry of public religious pickets with a central message of "God Hates Fags." |
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10/13/98 -- WBC to Picket (Preach) Funeral of Matthew Shepard, St. Mark s Episcopal, Casper, Oct. 17. Westboro Baptist Church Press Release. |
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10/13/98 -- Hate Crimes. NPR ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. Noah Adams. "Noah talks with Brian Levin, director of the Center on Hate an Extremism at Richard Stockton College of New Jersey, about hate crime legislation. Levin says hate crime law acts as a deterrent because hate crime perpetrators are punished more severely in states where such laws exist." |
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10/13/98 -- Gay Student Who Was Kidnapped and Beaten Dies. New York Times. JAMES BROOKE. "Matthew Shepard, the gay college student who was kidnapped and severely beaten, died here Monday, five days after he was found unconscious on a Wyoming ranch where he had been left tied to a fence for 18 hours in near-freezing temperatures." |
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10/13/98 04:54 EDT -- Float Carried Figure Mocking Gays. Associated Press. "Colorado State University is investigating how a scarecrow that mocked homosexuals appeared on a homecoming parade float while a severely beaten gay man lay dying in a nearby hospital. The scarecrow appeared on a float sponsored by Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity and Alpha Chi Omega sorority in Saturday's parade." |
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10/13/98 -- 14:53 EDT--Charges Upgraded in Attack on Gay. ROBERT W. BLACK. Associated Press. "The killing of Matthew Shepard, a gay University of Wyoming student who was pistol-whipped and tied to a post, has inspired outbursts of anti-gay hatred, including an anonymous e-mail applauding the attack and an offensive parade float." |
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10/14/98 -- The Road to Laramie. New York Times. FRANK RICH. "On the same day Americans learned last week that Matthew Shepard, a 5-foot-2, 105-pound gay college student, had been tortured, strung up like an animal and left to die on a fence outside Laramie, Wyo., the Family Research Council was co-hosting a press conference in Washington. It was the latest salvo in a six-month campaign by the religious right, with the tacit, even explicit, approval of Republican leaders, to demonize gay people for political gain in this election year." |
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10/14/98 -- A Night Of Terror: What Happened The Night Matt Shepard Was Killed? John Quinones, Diane Sawyer, Sam Donaldson. ABC 20/20. "Matthew Shepard will be buried this Friday. He is the gentle young man from Wyoming who was savagely beaten, tied to a fence and left to die. And the government says on average every week in America, two dozen people are physically attacked because they are gay. And yet, this one young man has become a symbol of what can happen with unacknowledged cruelty and prejudice &. What really happened on that terrifying night? How did a chance meeting in a crowded bar result in such a horrible crime?" |
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10/15/98 -- MANY SHARE IN THE HATE-FILLED KILLING OF GAY STUDENT. Deborah Mathis. ORLANDO SENTINEL. "The anti-homosexual crowd - most notably the Family Research Council, the Christian Coalition, Concerned Women for America and certain Republican leaders, such as Sens. Jesse Helms and Trent Lott and Rep. Dick Armey - will tell you they had nothing whatsoever to do with the killing of Matthew Shepard, a 21-year-old student at the University of Wyoming." |
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10/15/98 -- WELCOME TO THE VILE WEST, WHERE PEOPLE DON'T CARE IF GAYS ARE KILLED. The Sunday Mirror, London. ANDY LINES. "IN THE Fireside tavern, from where Matthew was lured to his death, people didn't seem to care that a local had died in one of the worst crimes in American history &. The barmaid boasted about how she was drinking screwdriver cocktails in a nearby bar at 8am that day. There was no collection jar in Matthew's memory, no posters, and no one wore the yellow armbands people had been urged to wear to show their solidarity against the horrific murder." |
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10/15/98 -- NPR ALL THINGS CONSIDERED Wyoming Folk on Shepard (transcript). Noah Adams, Robert Siegel. "The killing of Matthew Shepard is sparking lots of discussion in Wyoming. Some people believe the state needs an aggressive hate crime law. Others view the death of the gay student as a senseless, but unavoidable tragedy. Wyoming Public Radio's Heather Feeney reports." |
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10/16/98 -- Murder reveals much about Laramie; Men Held in Beating Lived on the Fringes. New York Times. JAMES BROOKE. "Within two hours one night last week, Poudre Valley Hospital in Fort Collins, Colo., admitted two young men from different sides of a social and sexual chasm in the small city of Laramie, Wyo. In one room lay Matthew Shepard, a gay 21-year-old freshman at the University of Wyoming and a graduate of the American School in Switzerland, who had been robbed and severely beaten in an episode that the authorities say was at least partly linked to his sexual orientation. Four rooms away lay one of Shepard's accused assailants, Aaron J. McKinney, a 22-year-old roofer who dropped out of high school." |
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10/16/98 -- HOMOSEXUAL ACTIVISTS BLAME CHRISTIANS FOR HATE CRIME. American Family Association ACTION ALERT. "American Family Association (AFA) is grieving and praying for the Shepard family over the death of their son, Matthew &. American Family Association today expressed its outrage at the ongoing campaign by homosexual activist groups and the secular media to link the murder of a Wyoming college student with Christianity." |
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10/16/98 -- Provo Teen's `Wish:' Crucify Gay Men And Burn Lesbians. SALT LAKE TRIBUNE. HILARY GROUTAGE."Students gathered around a tree outside Provo's Centennial Middle School on Wednesday for an annual tradition where they voice their wishes for the world. Most were idyllic: Stop world hunger. Save the rain forest. Then a 13-year-old boy stepped to the microphone and suggested that gay men be crucified on Main Street and lesbians be burned at the stake. " |
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10/16/98 -- The Death of Matthew Shepard: Examining Anti-Gay Violence in America. Larry King Live, WOLF BLITZER, GUEST HOST. "Tonight, a sad farewell to Matthew Shepard. As he's buried in Wyoming, his murder continues to spark outrage and debate across the country. We'll talk to two of Matthew Shepard's closest friends and examine the issue of anti-gay violence. Our guests: in Lynchburg, Virginia, Reverend Jerry Falwell, chancellor of Liberty University; in Louisville, Kentucky, Reverend Albert Mohler, Jr., president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary; here in Washington, Andrew Sullivan, writer for "The New York Times" magazine, senior editor at "The New Republic," and author of the book, "Love Undetectable"; and Elizabeth Birch, executive director of the group Human Rights Campaign." |
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10/17/98 -- Editorial: The Lesson of Matthew Shepard. New York Times. "It was a painful and soul-searching moment for the nation when Matthew Shepard was buried in Casper, Wyo., yesterday. The details of his murder have been a public horror-he was singled out, apparently, because he was gay, tied to a fence, beaten and left in a coma in the chill of night. His death at the tender age of 21 has brought home to the American public as nothing else ever has the menace and hatred that homosexuals still face in being honest in the United States." |
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10/19/98 -- That's Not A Scarecrow A Brutal Assault In Wyoming And A Rise In Gay Bashing Fuel The Debate Over Sexual Orientation. Time. Howard Chua-Eoan, Richard Woodbury, Maureen Harrington. "Matthew Shepard was not openly gay. He was just himself. If people asked and he felt comfortable in their presence, he'd say, "I'm gay." There was no flaunting it. After all, he was a freshman at the University of Wyoming in the Cowboy State, a campus where real men were supposed to love football and all-night parties &." |
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10/26/98 -- Echoes of a Murder in Wyoming: Matthew Shepard a slight, unassuming young homosexual is killed in the night, prompting a fierce new debate over hate and tolerance. Newsweek. Howard Fineman. "From his first breath, life was a struggle for Matthew Shepard. He was a preemie at birth a tiny slip of a kid who would grow up to be barely five feet tall. He was shy and gentle in a place where it wasn't common for a young man to be either: in Casper, a rough-and-tumble oil town, in Wyoming, a state that features a bronco buster on its license plate." |
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11/1/98 -- THE COURAGE OF HIS CONVICTIONS. Omaha World-Herald. Kristi Wright. "Organizing a candlelight vigil for someone you've never met is, perhaps, not the work of your average 16-year-old. But friends and family say Brad Matthew Fuglei, the young man behind a Memorial Park gathering in honor of a slain Wyoming college student, possesses sensitivity and concern far above average." |
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11/1/98 -- ONLINE MESSAGE FROM NYU VIOLENTLY THREATENS GAYS, SHEPARD VIGILS. WIRED STRATEGIES Press Release. John Aravosis. "Someone at New York University (NYU) apparently posted a message to a Matthew Shepard Web site yesterday threatening to "hurt any fag or dyke" holding vigils, marches or demonstrations honoring the slain University of Wyoming student. This incident is the latest in a series of online anti-gay attacks following Shepard's death." |
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11/2/98 -- Death In Wyoming. People Magazine. Thomas Fields-Meyer, Vickie Bane and Elizabeth Leonard. "In the first snow of autumn, family and friends mourn Matthew Shepard young, gay and brutally murdered." |
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11/6/98 -- MTV Kicks off New Anti-Violence Initiative. FIGHT FOR YOUR RIGHTS: TAKE A STAND AGAINST VIOLENCE WITH "TRUE LIFE: MATTHEW'S MURDER." "MTV will kick off its comprehensive new anti-violence initiative, "Fight for Your Rights: Take a Stand Against Violence" with & "True Life: Matthew's Murder." MTV News reporter Serena Altschul investigates Matthew Shepard's murder and examines violence against gays and lesbians across the country." |
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11/9/98 -- Matthew s Passion. The Nation. Tony Kushner. "When Trent Lott heard the news about the murder of Matthew Shepard, the first thoughts that flashed through his mind were all about spin. Trent Lott worried about how to keep his promise to the religious right, to speak out against the homosexual agenda, without seeming to endorse murder. Trent Lott endorses murder, of course; his party endorses murder, his party endorses discrimination against homosexuals and in doing so it endorses the ritual slaughter of homosexuals." |
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11/10/98 -- All eyes were watching. The Advocate. Chris Bull. "Matthew Shepard's murder changed the way the press covers gays. Will the change last? Cynthia Bowers remembers the instant the first wire-service report about the Matthew Shepard gay bashing came across her desk. The CBS News correspondent read with horror that the University of Wyoming student had been abducted, beaten, lashed to a deer fence, tortured, and left for dead in the frigid night." |
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11/20/98 -- Slain student's last moments. ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS. Kevin McCullen. "Matthew Shepard's tears cleared blood from a small part of his blood-caked face after he sustained 18 blows to the head from assailants who laughed at him as he begged for his life. Aaron McKinney, 22, admitted to authorities that he struck Shepard three times with his fists and six times with the butt of a stolen .357-caliber revolver the night of Oct. 6, and watched as partner Russell Henderson, 21, tied the University of Wyoming student to a buck fence, according to court testimony Thursday." |
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11/23/98 -- News from arraignment hearing of Aaron James McKinney. Associated Press report. |
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12/21/98 -- The Final Days and Nights of a Gay Martyr: Lonely and depressed, Matthew Shepard feared someone would kill him. Newsweek. Mark Miller. |
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12/23/98 -- Woman Guilty in Aiding Gay Murder. ROBERT W. BLACK. Associated Press. "A 20-year-old girlfriend of one of two men charged in the slaying of gay college student Matthew Shepard pleaded guilty Wednesday to being an accessory after the fact to first-degree murder." |
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12/23/98 -- Murder Charge In Gay Slaying Charge Can Carry Death Penalty In Wyoming; Girlfriends Of Suspects Charged As Accesories; Another Man Says He Was Attacked By Suspects. CBS News. "Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson have been charged with murder in the death of a gay University of Wyoming student. And CBS News Correspondent Cynthia Bowers reports that Matthew Shepard may not have been the only man allegedly attacked by the two men.... A second man, Emiliano Morales, was attacked on the same night, allegedly by the same suspects, and hit over the head with the pistol used to beat Shepard, police said." |
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12/28/98 -- Death Penalty Eyed in Wyo. Gay Case. Associated Press. ROBERT W. BLACK. "Prosecutors said Monday they'll seek the death penalty against the two men accused in the beating death of a gay University of Wyoming student." |
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12/29/98 -- Shepard Case Defense Speaks Out. Associated Press. "A prosecutor's plan to seek death penalties for the slaying of gay University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard is politically motivated, an attorney for one of the suspects says." |
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1/26/99 -- Price Freed On Bond. Associated Press. "One of two women charged with accessory after-the-fact to first degree murder in the fatal beating of Matthew Shepard has been freed on bond." |
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2/3/99 -- WYOMING LEGISLATURE KILLS HATE CRIMES BILLS. NATIONAL GAY AND LESBIAN TASK FORCE PRESS RELEASE. "The Wyoming legislature today killed all prospects of enacting the state s first-ever hate crimes law." |
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2/4/99 -- Gay's Slaying Alters Attitudes in College Town: After the attack on Matthew Shepard, Colorado State began examining its own atmosphere. Now the campus has state's first gay fraternity. Los Angeles Times. JULIE CART. |
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2/5/99 -- Remembering Matthew. MSNBC. Katic Couric. [Transcript.] "It s being called a hate crime by police. But those words don t begin to convey the horror felt all across the nation when Matthew Shepard was murdered last October. A gay student at the University of Wyoming, he was bound, brutally beaten and left to die. In an exclusive interview, Matthew s parents speak to Katie Couric." |
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2/25/99 -- MATTHEW SHEPARD AND HATE CRIMES, REVISITED. Episcopal List News Commentary. David Virtue. "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 &. Some newspaper reports allege that Mr. Shepard was cruising for `rough trade' when he met the two suspects &." |
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3/99 -- Writing the Book of Matthew. Out Magazine. Elise Harris. "Who Owns Matthew Shepard The Activists Who Never Knew Him Or The Family Who Thinks He Was More Than A Poster Boy For A Federal Bill? Elise Harris Looks At The Making Of A Martyr." |
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3/3/99 -- Defense motions filed in first Shepard murder trial. MSNBC. Wes Sturr. "A district court judge in Laramie has denied a defense request that separate juries be seated in the trial and sentencing phase in the first degree murder trial of Russell Henderson." |
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3/16/99 -- Gay activists speak out in advance of Shepard trial. MSNBC. Wes Sturr. "Gay and lesbian activists say they expect attorneys for the two men charged with killing University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard will attempt to place some blame on the 21-year-old Shepard being gay." |
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3/20/99 -- Trial in Murder of Gay Man To Open. Associated Press. ROBERT W. BLACK |
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3/21/99 -- Attorney maintains Shepard suspect is "100% not guilty." Peter Freiberg. NEW YORK BLADE. "Matthew Shepard, a gay University of Wyoming student, was found brutally murdered last October, and all evidence appears to point to the guilt of the two young men arrested by police Russell Henderson and Aaron McKinney, both 21." |
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3/21/99 -- Missed Chance to Address Bias? Lack of legislation criticized as trial set to start in Laramie. Newsday. Jeff Kass. "[A]s the death penalty trial for the first murder suspect begins Wednesday, probably the biggest trial in state history, some say Laramie and Wyoming missed out on a chance to make a statement before the eyes of the world by failing to launch tolerance programs and pass hate-crimes legislation." |
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3/22/99 -- Laramie braces for trial in gay student's slaying. Dallas Morning News. Paul Pringle. "A hangman's noose dangles over the beer taps at the Fireside Lounge, a rowdy but chummy bar where Matthew Shepard felt safe and where his friends last saw him alive." |
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3/22/99 -- Wyoming plans events for Gay Rights Week; Shepard trial begins. Casper Star Tribune."Events in honor of Gay Rights Week are coincidentally timed with the trial of two men charged with murdering Matthew Shepard, organizers said." |
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3/22/99 -- First trial in gay student's Wyo. murder to open Wednesday. Reuters. Kerry Drake. "The first of two men accused in the murder of a gay college student is scheduled to go on trial Wednesday in a case that has put the national spotlight on hate crimes." |
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3/24/99 -- Trial in Wyo. Gay Slaying To Begin. Associated Press. ROBERT W. BLACK. "Police patrols have been stepped up and makeshift fences have been erected at the sandstone courthouse for the trial of one of two men accused of murdering gay college student Matthew Shepard." |
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3/25/99 -- Gay Attack Trial To Open Next Month. Associated Press. "Seven people were dismissed Thursday as jury selection continued in the trial of a man accused in the beating death of gay college student Matthew Shepard." |
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3/25/99 -- Shepard Suspect Blames Co-Defendant. Associated Press. ROBERT W. BLACK. "The strategy for the first defendant on trial in the beating death of gay college student Matthew Shepard is clear: blame the co- defendant." |
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3/26/99 -- Excused jurors in gay slaying case opposed death penalty. Associated Press. ROBERT W. BLACK. "Two men who oppose the death penalty have been excused from jury duty in the first trial following the beating death of gay college student Matthew Shepard." |
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3/26/99 -- Profile of Shepard Slaying Suspect. Associated Press. Sandy Shore. "Like the gay college student he is accused of killing, Russell Henderson is a slightly built young man who was raised on the dusty high plains of Wyoming." |
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3/29/99 -- Shepard Jury Selection in 2nd Week. Associated Press. STEVEN K. PAULSON. "The trial of a young man charged with killing gay college student Matthew Shepard will include graphic photos and witnesses with felony convictions, a prosecutor told prospective jurors today." |
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4/5/99 -- Man Jailed For Murder Of Gay Wyoming Student. Judith Crosson. Reuters. "High school dropout Russell Henderson was jailed for life Monday after pleading guilty to the brutal murder of gay Wyoming student Matthew Shepard, an attack that threw the spotlight on hate crimes and anti-gay violence." |
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4/6/99 -- Shepard Trial I: The Final Act. NewsPlanet. "The last dramatic hour of the 1st trial in the Shepard gay-bash murder included the guilty man's side of the story, a mother and father's grief and a judge's wrath; only the underlying issues remain. The sudden end on April 5 of the trial of Russell Henderson for the murder of gay University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard was a dramatic, emotion-packed hour. Henderson pleaded guilty to felony murder "an unpremeditated act in the course of committing another felony" and kidnapping, and was immediately sentenced to two consecutive life terms without parole." |
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4/6/99 -- Gay Murder Trial Ends With Guilty Plea. "In a case that has focused national attention on violence against homosexuals, a 21-year-old roofer pleaded guilty today to kidnapping and murdering a gay college student and was sentenced to serve two consecutive life sentences." [NYT story from The Laramie Project Archives] |
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11/20/2000-Chronicle of a Death Foretold . The Nation. "On a bitingly cold October night two years ago in Laramie, Wyoming, a biker came upon a young man, unconscious, his sweet face ruined by a rain of blows, bound to a fence with ferocious tightness. Rushed to a hospital, he lingered for five days in the twilight world between life and death, never regaining consciousness ...." |
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Hate Crimes Legislation, Public Policy, and Public Attitudes
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10/13/98 -- 14:51 EDT--Law Denying Gays Protection Stands. RICHARD CARELLI. Associated Press. "The Supreme Court allowed Cincinnati to deny homosexuals specific protection from discrimination Tuesday, an order likely to create confusion over government policies on gay rights." |
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10/21/98--The Thin Line Between & FEAR and HATE. HOWARD ROSENBERG. Los Angeles Times. "Labeling grisly murder doesn't alter its result. Thus, if Matthew Shepard was not the victim of a hate crime in Laramie, Wyo., that won't soften the grief of his parents and friends, nor make him any less dead or his attackers any less ignorant or vile. Yet if his open homosexuality is what pushed their buttons, then in a strange, macabre way, his death may signal more progress albeit costly in gays and lesbians being accepted into the fellowship of society's mainstream." |
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10/21/98--The Thin Line Between & FEAR and HATE: Following disturbing real-life incidents, can two provocative films about intolerance find audiences? ROBERT W. WELKOS, Los Angeles Times. "Two Hollywood films that deal with American youth caught up in the swirl of hate and prejudice are being released this month even as the country itself grapples over the real-life murder of a gay college student who was pistol-whipped and left to die on a fence post in Wyoming. [Apt Pupil, Sony's TriStar Pictures & American History X, New Line Cinema]." |
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10/24/98--PANEL SAYS BRING HAMMER DOWN ON HATE. Salt Lake Tribune. Michael Vigh. "Justice Department official says laws are too vague to enforce. The best way to stop hate crime in Utah is to beef up penalties." |
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10/28/98 Gay genocide outlined by Christian Broadcast Network programming. "Bob Enyart Show." All statements are direct quotes from the tape of the show which was broadcast over the Christian Broadcasting Network. "Enyart: and, I'm going to go - where am I going to go here - to Kenosha, Wisconsin. We haven't been in Kenosha in a while. To Miles, speak your mind. C: Hello, Bob. E: Howdy, Miles. C: Hey, what do you think about gay bashing? E: It's cool." |
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11/4/98--THE NEW POLITICS OF INTIMIDATION. PATRICK J. BUCHANAN. "Shepard and Slepian are now being beatified as martyrs to the causes of gay rights and abortion rights. This, too, is false. Shepard was not fighting for gay rights on the night of his death. He was killed while out cruising for gay sex by thugs out cruising for easy mugging victims. Dr. Slepian was almost surely murdered by someone who believed he had been doing to death unborn children, which is exactly what Dr. Slepian had been doing, though that did not give anyone the right to murder him...." |
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11/12/98--Prejudice among teens on the rise. San Francisco Examiner. Carol Ness. "A survey of thousands of America's highest achieving high school students shows that nearly half admit prejudice against gays and lesbians, an increase of 19 percentage points since last year. And 15 percent are biased against African Americans and Hispanics, double the proportion in a similar survey last year." |
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11/17-23/98--The War Against Gays and Lesbians 'The Attacks Were the Most Brutal I Encountered.' Village Voice. Nat Hentoff. "There was a frisson of horror among some so-called straights after the murder of Matthew Shepard, but I doubt if that stark act of homophobia is any longer in the forefront for many of those people &. I further doubt that the true depth and extent of this hatred is realized by most Americans." |
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12/98--San Antonio Police Department's Sensitivity Program Criticized for discussing Homophobia. "Homophobia" by Marc Gallardo, The Centurion (San Antonio Police Department Newsletter). "Another in-service has gone by and, as usual some of the classes were good and useful. One in particular was downright worthless. It seems the instructor of a class labeled Homophobia, was very subtly trying to instill in our minds that being a homosexual is a normal lifestyle." |
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12/98--Uncivil Tolerance. Family Research Council/WASHINGTON WATCH. Gary L. Bauer. "Homosexual activists and other members of the liberal establishment say that they want a tolerant society, but they have seriously damaged the concept of tolerance by their reaction to two recent murders. The first was the killing of Matthew Shepard, an openly gay student in Wyoming. The second was the shooting of Dr. Barnett Slepian, an abortionist in upstate New York &." |
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12/8/98--HOMOPHOBIA: ALL IN THE FAMILY? The Village Voice. Nat Hentoff. "Matthew Shepard, brutally beaten by homophobes in Laramie, Wyoming, died in a hospital in Fort Collins, Colorado. After his death, an attempt to pass a law against hate crimes, including antigay ones, was defeated in Fort Collins by a margin larger than it had been in 1988 &. Whether state or federal, hate-crimes laws are seen by their supporters as deterrents and also as a powerful symbol to the community at large that violent bigotry is not just a crime against a single person, because it affects other members of the same group (blacks, gays, et al.)." |
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12/16-22/98--The Hate That Makes Men Straight: Psychoanalysts probe the roots of homophobia. Village Voice. Richard Goldstein. "If the murder of Matthew Shepard accomplishes nothing else, it will have focused attention on a bias so pervasive that it hardly seems like bias at all. This is homophobia, the last acceptable form of bigotry; the prejudice that enshrines itself in sermons and Senate speeches; the hate that does not hesitate to speak its name." |
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12/18/98--San Antonio Equal Rights Political Caucus Press Release. "Citing passages from the Old Testament, an article in the San Antonio Police Officers Association Newsletter criticizes the city government and the police department for including homosexuality in its sensitivity training program." |
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1/5/99 -- Seattle Times. State report cites harassment of gay students. Eight gang rapes and lesser harassment of students viewed as gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender have been reported in the state's schools since 1994, according to a report issued yesterday. |
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1/28/99 -- Videogame's Cheap Shot: Deer Hunter takes aim at the "gay guy." Wired. Steve Friess. "Alabama housewife Gwen Bentley was shocked when she heard her 10-year-old son exclaim that he had blown the "gay guy" to bits with a bazooka. Her son was playing Deer Avenger, a US$20 videogame that turns the premise of the game Deer Hunter around. Instead of humans stalking deer, the Deer Avenger player takes the role of the venison and hunts down stupid people. One of the quarries is Tree Hugger, a lavender-clad sprite who runs through the forest flailing his wrists and pointing out rainbows." |
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2/19/99 -- Klan flyers target gays, Jews, and blacks as 'subhuman.' Gay People's Chronicle. Eric Resnick. "Akron -- The American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan have begun a leaflet campaign in Akron consisting of hundreds of leaflets targeting blacks, Jews, gays, and liberals. According to Akron Police Detective Stan Smith, the flyers began appearing in the Kenmore and Wallhaven neighborhoods around the first of February and have spread to the Copley-Hawkins neighborhood, the University of Akron, to two high schools and to neighboring Stow." |
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3/5/99 -- Personal contact erases prejudice. SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER. Carol Ness. "I haven't beat up a gay guy yet," says one 16-year-old, a boy. "It's just wrong to be gay. It's nasty to me," says another 16-year-old, this one a girl. "If a gay girl tried to touch me, I'd hit her," said a third, also a girl. For people who think hate or intolerance exist only in places like Wyoming and Texas, think again: these three, plus a fourth, are San Francisco's own students at Downtown High School." |
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3/19/99 -- Mapping persecution: U.S. report excludes many Gay cases. Washington Blade. Kai Wright. "Gays and transgender people were killed either by or with the complicity of state agents all over the world last year &. By far, most Gay human rights abuses are left out of such reports, deliberately." |
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3/20/99 -- Gay-hate protection blocked by Right. Sydney (Australia) Morning Herald. MARK RILEY. "The "gay hatred" killing of 22-year-old Matthew Shepard in Laramie has become a cause célèbre across America, with notables from President Bill Clinton to lesbian actress Ellen DeGeneris leading a charge for new laws against homophobic violence. But the charge has stumbled badly. Four State bills aimed at adding sexual orientation to the protections of existing hate-crime laws have been rejected on the votes of the Christian Right." |
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3/22/99 -- THE POLITICS OF HATE. New York Post. OpEd. "The recent murder of Billy Jack Gaither, a gay textile worker, in Alabama has set the "we need more hate-crime laws" crowd back into motion. Sen. Charles Schumer has introduced the Hate Crime Prevention Act of 1999--a bill that will neither prevent hate crimes, nor ensure that those who commit them are punished." |
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3/23/99 -- Activists Seek Government-Enforced Acceptance by Desecrating Free Speech Rights. Center For Reclaiming America/Coral Ridge Ministries. "The Center for Reclaiming America calls for justice for the murders of Matthew Shepard and Billy Jack Gaither while opposing Federal "Hate Crime" legislation which would not in any way impact these crimes &. "I think it is the height of hypocrisy that the homosexual lobby is using Matthew Shepard's grieving mother to push for legislation to further their political agenda while opposing the death penalty for the thugs who killed him," said Janet L. Folger, National Director of The Center for Reclaiming America." |
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3/23/99 -- Hate Crime Legislation Urged. Associated Press. MICHELLE MITTELSTADT. "The day before one of the men accused of killing her son was going on trial in Wyoming, the mother of gay college student Matthew Shepard lobbied tearfully for hate-crime laws that could deter future acts of violence.Her plea was seconded by a relative of James Byrd Jr., the black man who was chained to the back of a pickup truck last summer and dragged to his death over East Texas roads." |
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3/25/99 -- Human Rights Campaign Press Release. "Several key civil rights leaders met on Monday with Attorney General Janet Reno to discuss the often strained relationship between law enforcement and minorities." |
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3/28/99 -- Hate on the Web: Is it free speech? Or does it incite violence? USA Weekend. A special report by Dennis McCafferty |
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4/21/99 -- outh Dakota Police: Hate Crimes Underreported, Real. Kevin Woster. Sioux Falls Argus Leader. "Crimes against homosexuals go unpunished in South Dakota because police fail to recognize them and victims hesitate to press charges, participants in a Sioux Falls forum said Saturday." |
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4/20/01-'Boys Don't Cry' Sheriff Negligent. "Nebraska's Supreme Court ruled Friday that a former sheriff was negligent for not protecting a cross-dressing woman whose rape and murder were dramatized in the movie 'Boys Don't Cry.''" |
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4/21/01-Court finds sheriff, county negligent . "The state's top court on Friday called "extreme and outrageous" a former Richardson County sheriff's treatment of Teena Brandon in the hours after she was raped ...." |
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Gay Bashing & Specific Attacks on LGBT People (incl. Billy Jack Gaither)
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9/11/96--Man Faces Death In Gay Slaying. Associated Press. JEFF BARNARD. "Occasionally smiling as a he stood before a judge, Robert James Acremant pleaded guilty Wednesday to murdering a lesbian couple in what he has called a hate crime against homosexuals." |
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Fall 1997--Southern Poverty Law Center Intelligence Report: Anti-homosexual Crime "The severity of the violence shows the hatred. "Homosexuals are far more likely to suffer violent attacks than any other group. Although statistics are sketchy, they indicate gays and lesbians are physically attacked in bias-motivated crimes six times more often than Jews or Hispanics and twice as frequently as blacks." |
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9/2/98--Two Men Are Attacked In Gay-Bashing Incidents. New York Times. "One man was beaten and another was stabbed in separate incidents in Greenwich Village late Monday and early yesterday by a group of men who carried out the attacks because they thought their victims were gay, the police said." |
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9/3/98 --3RD ANTI-GAY ATTACK IN VILLAGE. Newsday. "The third gay-bashing in Greenwich Village in two days has residents fearing for their safety and police attempting to prevent further attacks by putting more cops on the streets." |
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10/5/98--Survey reveals alarming gay bashing. Detroit News. Deb Price. OpEd. "Eighteen percent of male community college students admit physically assaulting or physically threatening someone presumed gay, a landmark survey of 484 San Francisco Bay area students found. Another 32 percent admit having been verbally abusive without threatening bodily harm." |
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10/10/98--Gay bashing is a hate crime. Denver Post. By Diane Carman. Arthur Dong's 1997 documentary, "Licensed to Kill." |
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10/12/98--High-Profile Violence Against Gays. Associated Press. Incidents of attacks against gay men and lesbians reviewed. |
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10/15/98--Teen cross-dresser attacked in Madison. MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL. Meg Jones. "An 18-year-old cross-dresser was attacked by a man wielding a broken beer bottle in Madison Tuesday evening, shortly after hundreds of people attended a vigil for a gay University of Wyoming student who was beaten to death. Madison police tentatively labeled the attack a hate crime because the victim was a man dressed in women's clothing. Police said they don't think the victim attended the rally." |
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10/17/98--Why now? Other gays have been victims of brutal attacks, but the slaying of a Wyoming student has caused a national outcry. Dallas Morning News. Brooks Egerton. "Ten teenagers, wielding pipes and nail-studded boards, mauled Paul Broussard on a city street. Two members of a neo-Nazi group lured Fred Mangione from a suburban tavern and stabbed him 35 times. Three men ambushed Thanh Nguyen as he snacked in a park, and yelling slurs, they beat, robbed, stripped and finally shot him. The victims, all slain in recent years in the Dallas and Houston areas, were gay men out in public with gay friends. Their convicted killers, authorities say, were driven by hatred of gays and picked their targets at random." |
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11/4/98--Hanged choirboy was bullied at school. BBC News. "A choirboy found hanged in his bedroom was the victim of a long bullying campaign, an inquest has heard. Friends of Darren Steele told the inquest he had been hit, burned with cigarettes and verbally abused at school in Burton, Staffordshire &. Darren, 15, was dead when his mother came in to check on him in his bedroom in March last year. He left a note saying he had been bullied." |
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11/5/98--Gay Drag Queen Shot Nearly to Death in Baltimore. Free State Justice Campaign Press Release."Less than a month after gay college student Matthew Shepard was viciously murdered in Laramie, Wyoming, a gay drag queen living in Baltimore, Maryland was shot six times - nearly to death - by youths saying that they would "not allow drag queen faggots" into their neighborhood." |
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11/6/98--Castro assault victim seeks witnesses. Bay Area Reporter. Timothy Rodrigues. "A gay man said he was assaulted in the Castro on Saturday, October 24 by a man and a woman yelling anti-gay slurs &. Peter Lee, a 42-year-old resident of the Castro neighborhood & was in the crosswalk with his dog heading towards Zapata Taqueria on 18th Street shortly after 2 p.m. when a late-model, off-white Chevy Impala cut in front of him." |
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11/16/98--Stark reminder ends gay, lesbian meeting. PITTSBURGH POST GAZETTE. John M.R. Bull. "Patricia Cramer stood yesterday and told her tale of Ku Klux Klan marches, midnight shotgun blasts, and preachers harassing her patrons. She spoke of local government's attempts to shut down her gay bar, Casa Nova, located near Somerset." |
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11/23/98--GAY RIGHTS ACTIVISTS FIGHT BACK: A Kansas preacher comes to Chicago to decry the rights of homosexuals and meets resistance in Lakeview. Chicago Tribune. David Mendell. "Residents of Lakeview, a neighborhood with a large homosexual population that was the site of an anti-gay beating in September, united Sunday morning to deliver this message: Words of bitter hatred toward homosexuals in the community will not go without a stern response &. They had come in response to Rev. Fred Phelps, an anti-gay preacher who visited Chicago Sunday to protest a local minister who presided over a gay marriage ceremony at the Broadway United Methodist Church." |
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11/24/98--Harvard Murderer Sentenced To Life Term; No Death Penalty In Brutal '96 Slaying Chicago Tribune. Phil Borchmann. "Convicted killer Christopher Martin escaped the death penalty Monday and was sentenced to life imprisonment for the hate-motivated slaying of a Minnesota man in a secluded Huntley cornfield more than two years ago &. Kane County Judge Donald C. Hudson recognized the brutal nature of the slaying, which prosecutors described as a hate crime against Blankenfeld, who was homosexual." |
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11/24/98 --Man gets life for murdering gay man. Chicago Daily Herald. James Kimberly. "For the robbery and brutal murder of a gay man from Minnesota two years ago - a hate crime he still gloats about to this day - Christopher S. Martin will spend the rest of his life in prison. Kane County Judge Donald Hudson Thursday noted Martin's "chilling and persistent lack of remorse" for the crime and the cruelty involved in the attack on 36-year-old Leon Blankenfeld &." |
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11/27/98 Teens smash up gay bar, injure patrons. New York Blade. "Palm Springs Pride 98 Festival November 8 erupted into chaos when a group of teens smashed up a gay bar filled with festival celebrants. Sgt. Patrick Williams of the Palm Springs Police Department said that between five and eight teenaged males entered the Sweetwater Saloon at about 10 minutes after midnight." |
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12/3/98 NATIONAL BLACK LESBIAN AND GAY LEADERSHIP FORUM EXPRESSES OUTRAGE AT VIOLENT SHOOTING OF BLACK GAY MAN IN BALTIMORE; CALLS FOR NEW CONGRESS TO PASS NATIONAL HATE-CRIMES LEGISLATION. "The National Black Lesbian and Gay Leadership Forum (NBLGLF) forcefully condemned the violent assault and shooting of a Black gay man in Maryland on Wednesday, October 28 as he was walking through the East Baltimore neighborhood where he grew up." |
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12/4/98 Teen accused of bus-stop murder released on bond. Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Mark Bixler. "A Cherokee County 15-year-old who was kicked out of school 11 times and now faces murder charges in the beating death of a younger neighbor was given bond Thursday. Jonathan Miller, a high school sophomore, faces murder charges as an adult in the Nov. 2 school bus stop beating of 13-year-old Josh Belluardo &. Another 16-year-old on the bus the day Josh was attacked testified that Jonathan often picked on Josh. Kristen Raymond said she heard Jonathan say that Josh was gay and that "gay people deserve to die." |
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12/4/98--MAN WANDERS S.F. STREETS WITH ANTI-GAY WRITING ON BODY. Bay City News Service news wire. "San Francisco police say a man was brought into a San Francisco hospital early today with anti-gay epithets scrawled on his body after he was found disoriented and wandering on a city street." |
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12/18/98--Cabbie slammed over slurs: Driver shouted obsceneties at women, rammed their car. New York Blade. Heather Boerner. "A judge last week revoked a New York City cab driver s license and fined him $1,000 for shouting racist and homophobic slurs at two women and then repeatedly ramming their car." |
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12/19/98--TWO MEN CHARGED UNDER HATE-CRIME LAW: Providence police say the suspects attacked a man as he left a gay and lesbian bar downtown. PROVIDENCE JOURNAL. Jonathan D. Rockoff. "Two men have been charged with what Mayor Vincent A. Cianci Jr. yesterday called the worst hate crime in the city since a new statute covering such crimes was enacted this summer." |
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1/5/99 -- tate report cites harassment of gay students. Seattle Times. Tim Klass. "Eight gang rapes and lesser harassment of students viewed as gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender have been reported in the state's schools since 1994, according to a report issued yesterday. In two cases, high-school boys committed suicide because of harassment, the Safe Schools Coalition of Washington State concluded. Dozens of others said they cut themselves, smoked or drank heavily and experienced nightmares and other distress. The reports came from victims as young as 6." |
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1/7/99 -- ATE CRIME SHOCKS MONTGOMERY. Jedd Kettler. County Courier. "MONTGOMERY, VT: When Michael Bindler saw the large gray words "go fags" spray painted on the shed at the end of his driveway he was shocked, frightened and hurt." |
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1/15/99 -- Hate crimes ring in 1999. New York Blade. Heather Boerner. "A few hours after the beginning of 1999, a man who yelled that he didn t want any "faggot shit around here" allegedly punched a 35-year-old New Jersey man in the head so hard that it knocked him unconscious. The attack, which took place in Chelsea, left the victim with a broken arm." |
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1/27/99 -- Gay student threatened. MSNBC. A. Wells. "SPOKANE It just horrifies me that people have so much hate in their heart and are spending energy to threaten other people, says the friend of a homosexual Gonzaga student who has been threatened for the second time." |
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1/28/99 -- Two RI youths to face charges in Nov. attack. Peter Cassels. "Two Rhode Island youths will go to trial Feb. 10 for allegedly assaulting a Providence man who says he is a transvestite on Thanksgiving Day. They are the first to be charged under the state's new, tougher hate-crimes law enacted last year." |
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1/28/99 -- Gay Washington Student Threatened. Associated Press. "Gonzaga campus police have increased patrols around the home of a gay student leader who received a death threat &. Smith, a senior, also received a death threat two weeks after the killing of Matthew Shepard, a gay student at the University of Wyoming." |
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3/3/99 -- Court rejects an appeal from death row. Philadelphia Inquirer. Lacy McCrary. "The state Supreme Court has rejected an appeal from one of Bucks County's most notorious death-row inmates, a man convicted of killing a gay Levittown artist in 1987 in what authorities called a hate crime &.Bucks County District Attorney Alan Rubenstein said the ruling did not surprise him. When he prosecuted Laird and codefendant Frank Chester in the 1987 death of commercial artist Anthony Milano, 26, he said the two men killed Milano because of their "fierce hatred of homosexuals." |
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3/4/99 -- Cops: Man Killed Because He Was Gay. Associated Press. "Two men charged with the murder of a man whose body was set afire said they killed him because he was homosexual. Charles Monroe Butler Jr., 21, was arrested Monday and Steven Eric Mullins, 25, was arrested Wednesday in the Feb. 19 slaying of Billy Jack Gaither, 39. "Mullins and Butler stated the reason they killed him was because he was a homosexual," said Coosa County Sheriff's Deputy Al Bradley. "We believe this to be the true motive.'' |
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3/4/99 -- The Alabama Murder. NewsPlanet Staff. "Two young men in Alabama confess to killing a man for no other reason than his sexual orientation, and America gets to take a good look at itself - again. The reported confession of two young men in Alabama to murdering an acquaintance because he was gay is drawing widespread attention from national media." |
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3/7/99 -- Town reeling after gay man's killing: The Alabama folks are surprised by their town's "backward" ways. Philadelphia Inquirer. Richard Jones. "It is marked by broken glass and charred wood. Yellow police tape hangs from the tree limbs like so many grisly streamers. And someone has placed four daffodils on the scorched soil where Billy Jack Gaither fell &. His slaying -- and the news of the alleged killers' motive -- has quickly seared itself into the conscience of this state and the nation." |
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3/7/99 -- Beheading stuns gay community / Many in area say they hope slaying wasn't hate crime. Times-Dispatch(Richmond, VA). MARK HOLMBERG. "News of Henry Edward Northington's decapitation alarmed the gay community over the weekend as word spread that his severed head was left on a footbridge leading to a popular summertime meeting place for gays, perhaps to send a message." |
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3/10/99 -- THE EVIL OF HOMOPHOBIA. St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "Billy Jack Gaither knew evil in the last hours of his life. Severely beaten with an ax handle and stuffed into the trunk of his own car, Gaither was still conscious when his assailants stopped along a remote water reservoir in central Alabama. There, 21-year-old Charles Butler and 25-year-old Steven Mullins allegedly pulled Gaither from the trunk. Using the same ax handle, they finished him off with blows to the head &. The men claim they were distressed by an alleged sexual pass from Gaither. If unwanted sexual advances were cause for killing, heterosexual men would be an endangered species." |
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3/11/99 -- "There's the faggots, get them." Sydney Star Observer. Brendan Bolger. "A 36-year-old Darlinghurst man who was bashed after the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras parade received reconstructive surgery at St Vincent's Hospital in a three-hour operation on Tuesday. James Wilson was bashed by two men who allegedly went on a rampage kicking and punching passers-by." |
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3/11/99 -- Helvey Hearing. NewsPlanet Staff. "According to the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN), the Naval Parole and Clemency Board on March 10 held its annual review hearing regarding the sentence of Terry Helvey, currently serving a life term for the 1992 gay-bashing murder of his shipmate, Seaman Allen Schindler &. Schindler's mother, Dorothy Hajdys-Holman, whose story was dramatized in the television movie "Any Mother's Son," was represented at the hearing by SLDN senior staff attorney Stacey Sobel. "I wanted to remind them that anti-gay violence cannot and should not be tolerated by the Navy," said Sobel &." |
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3/12/99 -- Gay man beheaded. Remains found in Richmond park near site of arrests. Washington Blade. Lou Chibbaro Jr. "Gay activists in Richmond expressed shock and horror last week after the severed head of a Gay man was found on a footbridge "where it had been apparently carefully positioned" in a section of that city's James River Park where local press had recently reported on a large number of men being arrested for soliciting sex from other men." |
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3/12/99 -- Police downplay hate crime motive in beheading murder. MSNBC. "Henry Edward Northington's severed head was found on a James River Park footbridge almost two weeks ago. They offered few new details of their investigation into a brutal murder, but Richmond police did appear Friday to have a definite goal in mind when they invited news reporters in to discuss the case of Henry Edward Northington." |
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3/12/99 -- Man Pleads in Gay Killings. Associated Press. "A man accused of murdering five gay men because he thought it would stop the spread of AIDS abruptly ended his trial by pleading guilty to the charges, prosecutors said." |
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3/15/99 -- Defense attorney accuses police of improper leaks in gay killing. Associated Press. JAY REEVES. "Rod Giddens, attorney for Steven Eric Mullins, one of two men accused of murdering an acquaintance because he was gay, accused police Monday of improperly leaking information to the media. Mullins and Charles Butler Jr., 21, are charged in the Feb. 19 killing of Billy Jack Gaither, 39. All three men live in or near Sylacauga, about 45 miles southeast of Birmingham." |
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3/19/99 -- Gaither vigil powerful, but attendance disappointing to LGBT community. Bay Area Reporter. Mark Norby. "Saturday evening, March 13 was a bit warmer than in recent weeks, and there wasn't a drop of rain that fell during the three-hour San Francisco vigil for Billy Jack Gaither, the 39-year old gay man tortured and killed in Sylacauga, Alabama last month." |
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