It was October 1998, and I was a thirty something, mostly out guy just trying to sort everything out in my mind just trying to work out how to reconcile honesty with not losing everything. My life was forever turned upside down when news broke that a student from the University of Wyoming in Laramie, had been brutally murdered. He had been beaten, tied to a split-rail fence, pistol-whipped and left to die in near freezing temperatures. It was shocking, it was sickening, and it left people [and me] wondering why.

For six days I was glued to the news and hoping for his recovery, but on October 12, 1998, Matthew Shepard's battered body finally gave out and he died. During that week the world discovered the reason that Matthew had been beaten and left to die: He was gay.

Matthew's brutal murder had a chilling effect on everyone I knew, it made worldwide headline news, but it struck especially close for me. My bewilderment and sadness at this senseless act turned to pure disgust when Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church showed up at Matthew's funeral to scream hateful messages. How could someone who had never met Matthew and a pastor no less, hate him enough to protest his funeral and shout such repulsive messages at his family and friends, All this hatred towards a dead student for just being who he was? I had believed America was better than this. Surely the world was better than this?

Matthew was the victim of this crime, but because this type of ugly hatred reared its head, many were left with emotional scars and memories that will haunt us forever. It has been 10 years since Matthew was killed. I’ve left the proverbial closet way behind, got civilly partnered, moved from the UK to Sweden Yet, as I compare the world then to the world now; it saddens me to realise how little attitudes have changed.
    
Today, we see little alarm or public outpouring to stop this type of bias-motivated crime; often these crimes get no more attention than a minute on the local evening news. Have we grown immune in the 10 years since Matthew was killed? Anti-gay and anti-transgender hate crimes are still pervasive in America: On Feb. 12, a 15-year-old boy in Oxnard, California, Lawrence "Larry" King admitted to classmates that he had an innocent Valentine crush on a male classmate. The next day, the boy Larry had mentioned came to school and shot Larry in the back of the head. Larry was killed because he was gay.

In July 18-year-old Angie Zapata returned to her home in Greeley, Colorado, to find a man she had previously dated waiting for her. According to that man's story, he became enraged when he found out Angie was transgender and beat her to death with a fire extinguisher. In September, police reported that the murderer said, "All gay things should die."
In August, 18-year-old Carlos Lopez was beaten severely by a gang of men after admitting he was gay. The beating was so severe that Carlos had to get reconstructive surgery on his face.
    
It was a tragedy when Matthew was so brutally murdered, and it is worse still that we haven't learned from the past, and teenagers like Larry, Angie and Carlos are still subject to this type of crime today.  In 1998, when Matthew was killed, President Clinton and congressional leaders called for a federal hate-crimes bill, yet 10 years later there are no federal protections against hate crimes. As a country America failed Matthew and it is still failing people like Larry, Angie and Carlos.
    
I’ll sign off with the words of Dave O’Malley, former Laramie Police chief:

"Prior to this case I wasn’t hugely homophobic, but I was mean-spirited. I bought into the jokes and the myths and stereotypes of the gay community. Because of what happened, I was forced to interact with that community. Quite frankly, I started losing my ignorance. Did I re-evaluate my beliefs in that first week? In the old country we’d call that a no-shitter. It didn’t take very long at all for me to realize that I was dead wrong. ...

"To me, every crime was a hate crime. But I saw the difference with what happened to Matt. We had kids moving out of Laramie, transferring to other colleges. There was a huge amount of terror and fear---I hadn’t seen that before. There are people killed during liquor store robberies every day in this country, but I never think twice about going to the liquor store. It’s a different kind of a motivation and a different kind of impact. I’ve now been to Washington to speak about hate-crimes legislation on seven occasions. It’s something I believe in, and I’m going to keep working at it."

America cannot continue to fail these young people. Everyone deserves to feel safe and secure in their communities. No longer should gay kids be forced to ask themselves the questions that I asked when Matthew was murdered, "Is this what will happen to me, because I'm gay?" Ten years later and with a new president it is time to act America. Barak Obama recently made this statement that gives me a little hope for the future.

“We pause to remember the heartbreaking and senseless murder of Matthew Shepard. A freshman at the University of Wyoming, Matthew was a young man committed to fighting for equality and changing the world around him. He was tragically taken from us far too early, an innocent victim of an abhorrent hate crime, and never had the chance to see his dreams realized. “In the ten years since Matthew's passing, Congress has repeatedly and unacceptably failed to enact a federal hate crimes law that would protect all LGBT Americans. That's not just a failure to honour Matthew's memory; it's a failure to deliver justice for all who have been victimized by hate crimes, regardless of race, gender or sexual orientation. All Americans deserve to live their lives free of fear, and as Americans, it is our moral obligation to stand up against bigotry and strive for equality for all. “Today, Michelle and I send our thoughts and prayers to Matthew's parents, Judy and Dennis, and to all whose lives have been touched by unconscionable violence.”