Sorry, Bulldog, but THAT bloody-effing closet didn't hold any peace for the people who were in it!

I doubt this will change your mind about bias crimes, but others may find this interesting:

"When Hate Came to Wyoming"
by
Katey LaFrance

Published in the Liberal Opinion Week
October 26, 1998

He could have been my brother, who is gay. He was someone's son, brother, nephew, friend. Matthew Shepard is dead; beaten brutally because he was gay. Police in Laramie, Wyoming are claiming robbery as the primary motive, not prejudice. All of his friends and those of us who've been in the trenches, trying for years to get the Wyoming legislature to pass a bias crimes bill, have no doubt his murder was a result of hatred for a class of people whom a good share of our society holds in contempt.
With inflammatory rhetoric of some who call themselves Christians and others of the far right, homosexuals and lesbians have become the last society-sanctioned targets of hate. Because I support the idea that gays and lesbians have a right to live safely in America, just this morning, I received hate email which told me how happy the writer was that a "faggot" had been beaten to death; the writer hopes the rest of us will be, too.
In Billings, Montana, in 1993, anti-Semites came to town with violent acts towards a Jewish family. That community stood up and said "Not in Our Town". The local newspaper printed a full-page menorah and asked people to hang them in their windows which made it impossible for those hate-filled criminals to target just those of Jewish faith.
This was so successful, an award-winning documentary named after their slogan, "Not in Our Town", was made and shown on public television throughout the nation. It inspired so many other communities, a follow up video titled "Not in Our Town II" was produced which chronicles the same types of positive actions others have taken to confront intolerance.
This is what citizens of Wyoming are doing. Their signs are printed on bright yellow paper with the universal symbol for no, the word "hate" crossed out in the center. Above is the word "Wyoming" with "Equality State" below. People are hanging them in their windows to show the world that not all Wyomingites are filled with such prejudice and hate. They are also a warning to those who believe it is okay to harass and murder gay people; they are not welcome in Wyoming.
The response has been overwhelming positive. Newspapers are printing the symbol for readers to tear out, requests for signs have numbered in the thousands and come from as far away as Florida.
At the moment, those of us in the thick of it, feel a little battle worn. The personal assaults via email are frightening in their anonymity, sickening in their intent and meaning. A Reverend Phelps, from Kansas, claims he is coming to town for Matthew's funeral, with picketers carrying signs which say, "God hates fags" and "Matt fag in hell". A frat house had a float in the homecoming parade in Ft. Collins, Colorado, last weekend, where Matt lay dying surrounded by his family. On this float was a scarecrow, spread-eagled, as Matt was. On the front had been painted the message, "I'm gay", on the back, "up my ass".
The last time I spoke to a prominent state senator to urge him to pass a bias crimes bill for Wyoming, he told me if we would drop "sexual orientation" from the list of classifications, they would pass the bill immediately. In other words, they wanted the right to sanction singling out one class of people for no protection, while all others would be afforded the deterrent of stricter penalties for any hate crimes against themselves and others.
Other legislators claimed this kind of crime doesn't happen in Wyoming. I guess they don't know about the bar which has a noose hanging on the wall with a sign stating if you are a homosexual you can expect a necktie party; they've forgotten about the gay man who was mutilated in the early eighties and left for dead along the Interstate highway; they chose to ignore the incredibly brave young students who testified about the hate and harassment they had been subjected to, in the "Equality State", because they were perceived to be gay.
It seems it is a sin, in the eyes of some, to be different. What great fear they must have, of anything different and/or of the possibility they, themselves, might be different. This fear is what leads to the type of hate and violence which took Matt's life. Nobody deserves to die, be beaten, live in fear, or be harassed because it appears they might belong to a minority class.
While the men who murdered Matt may have planned on robbing him, it seems obvious they were motivated by hatred for gays. It also seems obvious they and their families and friends are now claiming, most ardently, that theirs was not a hate crime. It seems obvious they do fear enhanced retribution if convicted of a murder motivated by a prejudice of a certain class of people; otherwise, why would they be protesting so much?
It has been a long week of long hours for so many of us in Wyoming, Colorado and elsewhere. The one thing I've found out, again, is Wyomingites as a whole, though conservative in many ways, do not condone such heinous crimes as Matthew's murder. They are coming out in droves to show their support for him, his family and those of us who work on these issues daily.
At last Sunday's candlelight vigil, held in Casper, where Matthew's funeral will be, we sang a song which repeated these words over and over, "Listen, listen, listen to my heart song. I will never forget you, I will never forsake you." That day, I had called my brother in anger, telling him to never call me again. He came to the vigil that night where we both apologised.
Near the end of the ceremony, everyone started to sing that song, just after we'd been reminded, in a message from Matt's mom, to hug our loved ones and be thankful they were safe. I felt full of pain, anguish, gratitude and sorrow. My brother was beside me. I could touch him, hear him, see him. As the tears rolled down my face, I embraced him with a fierceness born of love and imbued with a desire to keep him safe forever. I will never forget him, nor forsake him; nor will any of us forget Matthew Shepard and the terrible tragedy that brought hate home to Wyoming. 10/13/98