Matthew Shepherd was a homosexual college student in Laramie, Wyoming. He was murdered in 1998. According the narrative, he was targeted and murdered because he was gay, and the two men who murdered should have been charged with a "hate" crime. Stephen Maganini in the Sacramento Bee continues to push this story:
The truth is a little different. A gay investigative journalist, Stephen Jimenez, initially set out to write a screenplay about the case, but the more he looked into it, the more he found that did not fit the legend created by Shepherd's friends and the LGBT community:
I encourage you to read both linked stories and compare the extensively documented and researched reality to the way the tragic death of Matthew Shepherd has been and continues to be reported in the media.
This is just an example of what we are up against. The current uproar about homosexuality is simply the cause of the day. It happens all the time, from the wonders of Communism and Socialism to the war in Vietnam to the ridiculous defense of the Religion of Pieces.
Matthew Shepard was a 21-year-old peer counselor and student at the University of Wyoming in Laramie when he stopped at a bar one October evening in 1998 and was later abducted by two men who pretended to be gay, Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson. They drove him out into the country and tied him to a split rail fence. McKinney savagely beat Shepard with the butt of a pistol. He was discovered alive 18 hours afterward by a cyclist who initially thought he was a scarecrow. He died several days later. [emphasis added]
The truth is a little different. A gay investigative journalist, Stephen Jimenez, initially set out to write a screenplay about the case, but the more he looked into it, the more he found that did not fit the legend created by Shepherd's friends and the LGBT community:
Jimenez found that Matthew was addicted to and dealing crystal meth and had dabbled in heroin. He also took significant sexual risks and was being pimped alongside Aaron McKinney, one of his killers, with whom he’d had occasional sexual encounters. He was HIV positive at the time of his death.Jimenez published the propaganda-puncturing information he obtained in a book, The Book of Matt: Hidden Truths about the Murder of Matthew Shepard. You can read the Guardian story in full here.
“This does not make the perfect poster boy for the gay-rights movement,” says Jimenez. “Which is a big part of the reason my book has been so trashed.”
I encourage you to read both linked stories and compare the extensively documented and researched reality to the way the tragic death of Matthew Shepherd has been and continues to be reported in the media.
This is just an example of what we are up against. The current uproar about homosexuality is simply the cause of the day. It happens all the time, from the wonders of Communism and Socialism to the war in Vietnam to the ridiculous defense of the Religion of Pieces.
I see Bill O'Reilly is also pushing the les told about the murder of Shepard, and surely he knows better.
ReplyDeleteO'Reilly mentioned it in a discussion with John Stossel, where O'Reilly was contending that gays need special protections and specifically hate crime protections.
Stossel, to his credit disagreed. Murder is already illegal and calling murder a hate crime will not make the penalties any worse.
As far as assaults or any other crime, If one wants to say they deserve greater penalties I'm all for it, whether they are committed because ofhate, greed, lust or whatever.
However, giving any group of people special rights or protections is wrong.
Should someone who assaults a gay person be given more jail time than someone who assaults a heterosexual?
That flies in the face of equal under the law and it could easily be, and has been, abused by the media and politicians who have their own agendas and are not concerned about justice for all, despite what thay may say.
Jimenez is a very courageous man to tell the truth, knowing how he would be maligned and smeared for doing so.
Integrity and honesty like thatis a rare thing these days.
I agree the idea of a hate crime is just stupid, and you are right about Jimenez and his courage. What he did was not easy.
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