Was everyone wrong about the Matthew Shepard murder being a hate crime?

[7962]

http://www.advocate.com/print-issue/current-issue/2013/09/13/have-we-got-matthew-shepard-all-wrong?page=full

>snip>
What if nearly everything you thought you knew about Matthew Shepard’s murder was wrong? What if our most fiercely held convictions about the circumstances of that fatal night of October 6, 1998, have obscured other, more critical, aspects of the case? How do people sold on one version of history react to being told that facts are slippery — that thinking of Shepard’s murder as a hate crime does not mean it was a hate crime? And how does it color our understanding of such a crime if the perpetrator and victim not only knew each other but also had sex together, bought drugs from one another, and partied together?

[gopiscrap]

1. Yeah? who's putting out that story?

Last edited Sat Sep 14, 2013, 07:31 PM - Edit history (1)

[7962]

4. Click on the link and read the story

[uppityperson]

2. It wasn't a hate crime but murder due to being on meth and "a misguided culture of masculinity"?

I don't care if you have "self-hate and a misguided culture of masculinity", if you kill someone for their sexual orientation, even if you are meth, it IS a hate crime.

[Warpy]

7. Yes, throw in shame for what you did when you were flying high on meth

a tightly closed closet, and a desire to repress who you are to fit in, it still makes sense as a hate crime.

Yes, there were other circumstances, there usually are.

Machismo and self loathing directed outward were the root causes.

[Bluenorthwest]

3. Oddly the version of the killing in the article makes it MORE of a hate crime, not less

Hate crimes are not 'only when sober' crimes, nor are they crimes of which only strangers are victims.

[gopiscrap]

6. I tend to agree with you!

[msanthrope]

9. Holy crap....we agree on something! nt

[Starry Messenger]

5. No.

[Tien1985]

8. It's already been pointed out

But, nothing in there makes the murder of Matthew Shepard not a hate crime.

A LGBT person can commit a hate crime, a former lover can commit a hate crime, a drug user can commit a hate crime. Killing someone because of their sexual orientation is a hate crime, even if the murderer is expressing hate towards themselves at the time. "What you hate most in others is what you don't like about yourself..." And all.