The murder of Matthew Shepard and fighting the politics of hate

Jaime R. Balboa, Event Co-ordinator, International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC), draws an "unforgettable lesson" from the latest homophobic atrocity.

In the evening of October 15th, 1998, a group of about 350 people gathered at the intersection of 17th and Castro in San Francisco. It was just eleven days after Matthew Shepard, a 21 year old college student, had been abducted and tortured, and three days after he died from the injuries he sustained - injuries he sustained, reportedly, because he was gay.

We gathered to voice our collective outrage at the alleged perpetrators for their cold and calculated crimes and at the world which generally sits silently by, allowing hate and intolerance to be taught in our schools, in our families, in our government institutions, in our religious movements. Community United Against Violence was the co-ordinating co-sponsor and IGLHRC was a co-sponsor of the event.

I spoke at the event because I needed to channel my anger and resentment at this heinous hate-crime. It was, in effect, a political assassination: the brutal assassination of a person who openly defied compulsory heterosexuality.

I spoke to articulate a vision. The crisis of hate is global and systemic. In Romania one day after Matthew Shepard's murder, Stefan Itoafa, a human rights activist, was murdered and authorities were dismissive of it, calling it just another "homosexual murder". In Zimbabwe, President Robert Mugabe said that homosexuals are "worse than dogs and pigs" declaring that we "have absolutely no rights". In Brazil, in August of this year, activists report that a group of military police forced two transvestite sex workers to throw themselves into the sea after torturing and humiliating them. One of the victims drowned. In the US, Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott likened homosexuality to alcoholism and kleptomania.

I spoke to make transparent what is often obscured: hate is interconnected. The alleged perpetrators of the crimes against Matthew Shepard reportedly continued their violent course that night, attacking two Latino men, Emilio Morales (19) and Jeremy Herrera (18). Their work did not end with Matthew Shepard.

The work of hatred is an on-going task, bubbling to the surface in many and diverse ways. It surfaces in jokes and comments, in violence and crimes, in public policies and public proclamations, in theological doctrines, and in institutional exclusions.

After listening to the various speakers - professional activists, queer youth, a friend of Matthew Shepard's - we marched to a place in San Francisco where, just this past summer, another man died of injuries he sustained at the hands of a stranger who reportedly verbalised his hate for "fags" as he attacked. Like Matthew Shepard's assailants, this perpetrator also attacked others - in his case, a homeless man. As I walked, a police officer remarked, "Don't let anyone straggle. We've received threats of retaliation."

The threat of retaliation was against our being, our existence, driving home the unforgettable lesson: it is dangerous to be transgendered, to be bisexual, to be lesbian, to be gay.

Matthew Shepard died on October 12th, 1998 of the wounds he sustained in an anti-gay hate-crime. So many groups have issued clarion calls to organise a fight back to create and defend spaces for sexual minorities. Let's make alliances along the way. How can liberation and emancipation movements in G7 countries aid and support our sibling movements in other parts of the world? How can they aid and support us? How does our work impact on theirs? How does theirs impact on our own?

The alleged perpetrators of Matthew Shepard's murder did not stop with him. The hate that motivated them surely won't be curtailed if and when they receive their sentences. The stakes are high indeed.

For more information about the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission visit their web page: http://www.iglhrc.org or write to IGLHRC, 1360 Mission Street, Suite 200, San Francisco, CA 94103 USA.

previous article ·  Dec '98 index of LLB ·  write to LLB ·  LLB home page ·  next article