Discuss “Shepard bill targets hate crimes”

It was a cold night in October 1998 when Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson offered University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard a ride home from a bar in Laramie, Wyo. Matthew never made it home. McKinney and Henderson bound Shepard to a fence, pistol-whipped him, and left him for dead — all because Matthew was gay.

I was 12 at the time, and unaware of what being “gay” meant. But as time passed, I realized more how Shepard’s beating would be the defining moment in causing the country to examine its hatred for those outside the norm.

Almost nine years later, I look at Shepard’s beating through the eyes of a confident and self-aware gay male. I’m not ashamed of who I am, but every time I pass a group of rowdy heterosexual males...