Bay Windows - November 25, 2004
Susan Ryan-Vollmar, srvollmar@baywindows.com

Either way, a viewing of an advance copy of the show makes clear that Matthew Shepard was, indeed, gay-bashed. McKinney admits as much when he tells "20/20's" Elizabeth Vargas that he pistol whipped Shepard in his truck after Shepard "grabbed" his leg: "Yeah. I hit him with the pistol. I had my arm behind the seat with it. Like that. I was getting ready to pull it on him anyways. I hit him five or six times altogether."

But that fact is in danger of being lost amid the following "revelations" unearthed by "20/20": McKinney was nearing the end of a week-long bender on methamphetamine when he beat Shepard to death with the eight-inch-long gun; McKinney was bisexual (at least according to his former girlfriend as well as a man who claimed to have had sex with McKinney; McKinney denies it); Shepard used drugs (according to a bartender at one of the clubs he frequented); Shepard was HIV-positive (according to the same man who claimed to have had sex with McKinney); and McKinney and Shepard had met previously (according to a former friend of McKinney's; McKinney denies it).

Is there value in exploring every aspect of a case that captured the world's attention and became a symbol of the violence faced daily by GLBT people? Of course. But not like this. How do we find out, for instance, that Shepard was HIV-positive? From the limo driver who occasionally drove Shepard and his friends on the 120-mile roundtrip journey from Laramie to the nearest gay bar in Fort Collins, Colo. Although Shepard's mother Judy was interviewed by "20/20" she apparently was not asked if she knew Shepard was HIV-positive. Meanwhile, the relevance of Shepard's HIV status to his murder is never made clear. Possibly because there is no connection whatsoever.

All that said, we do learn something from "20/20" investigation: Notwithstanding the recent passage of 11 state defense of marriage acts, the cultural conversation around homosexuality has advanced so much that a killer like McKinney, who unsuccessfully tried to employ the "homosexual panic" defense at trial yet who now tells "20/20" that he's never had any problems with gay people, would much rather be thought of as a strung-out crank addict than a homophobe. Not exactly the progress we're looking for, but it's something.

What we don't learn from "20/20" is this: Violence against GLBT people - violence of the sort that Shepard's murder came to symbolize - is real. Statistics released this week by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) show that hate crimes-related homicides are rare; only 14 were recorded in 2003. But six of them were motivated by homophobia. Most of the hate crimes committed in this country, about 52 percent, are motivated by racism. Next are those committed because of homophobia or religious bias (approximately 16 percent each). It's clear that when it comes to the commission of bias-motivated crimes in this country, GLBT people are at risk. Yet the FBI is only authorized to investigate hate crimes related to race, religion, ethnicity, and disability. Congress continues to refuse to give the agency jurisdiction over homophobia-related crimes committed because of, well, homophobia.

It's hard not to believe that there was a little of that at work behind the "20/20" report as well.

Anti-gay media bias

Why do mainstream media organizations think it's OK to run paid advertisements by radical religious groups that organize around hatred of GLBT people? We saw it with the Boston Globe last January when that paper accepted a full-page advertisement from Focus on the Family that was filled with lies about gay families. It happened again last week when the Washington Post ran a 16-page glossy supplement (you can see it for yourself at www.bothsidesmag.com) claiming, among other things, that homosexuality is a choice and that the average gay man only lives to age 41.

There's no question that the Post has a First Amendment right to distribute such garbage. But that doesn't mean it has to. After all, can anyone imagine the Post running similarly racist or anti-Semitic ads? You can make your displeasure known by contacting the Post's ombudsman at 202-334-7582 or e-mailing ombudsman@washpost.com.

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