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NEW YORK (AP) — Twenty years after Matthew Shepard’s death , the
federal hate crimes law bearing his name is viewed with mixed
feelings by LGBT and anti-violence organizations that lobbied
over nearly a decade for its passage.

President Barack Obama signed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd
Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act into law on Oct. 28, 2009, just
over 11 years after Shepard — a gay 21-year-old college student
— died from injuries suffered in a brutal beating by two Wyoming
men .

The act expanded the 1969 federal hate-crime law to include
crimes based on a victim’s sexual orientation, gender identity
or disability. It strengthened other aspects of the old law and
provided funding and technical assistance to state and local
jurisdictions to bolster their investigation and prosecution of
hate crimes.

The U.S. Justice Department says that as of this summer, it had
used the Shepard/Byrd law to indict 88 defendants in 42 hate
crimes cases, with 64 convictions to date. It provided a
breakdown on the nature of recent hate crimes cases, saying
seven of the 32 convictions since January 2017 involved crimes
targeting gay and transgender people. A 2017 report compiled for
the Matthew Shepard Foundation documented 25 cases prosecuted
under the Shepard/Byrd law through mid-2017; nine of them
involved LGBT victims.

Some activists have been disappointed by the relatively low
number of anti-LGBT cases prosecuted under the law.

But David Stacy, government affairs director of the Human Rights
Campaign, considers it a success because of its role in
motivating state and local prosecutors to take anti-LGBT
violence more seriously.

“Even when these prosecutors don’t bring a hate crimes charge,
they’re pushing to solve these crimes,” he said.

Judy Shepard, Matthew’s mother and co-founder of the foundation
bearing his name, said the federal law has been helpful, but she
hopes for further steps — requiring law enforcement agencies to
report hate crimes to federal authorities and providing better
training for officers handling the cases.

“We are seeking to create environments where victims of hate
violence do not fear re-victimization by the police,” she said
by email

The New York City Anti-Violence Project is among the groups that
initially supported the Shepard/Byrd law but now have misgivings.

“There has been a real transformation about how we think about
ending violence and what justice looks like,” said the group’s
director of organizing, Audacia Ray. “We wanted the system to
fix things through punishment. We now believe punishment doesn’t
end violence — it perpetuates it.”

Ray said anti-LGBT violence could be reduced through “economic
justice” and better housing options for marginalized LGBT people.

According to the Human Rights Campaign, 30 states now have laws
covering crimes based on sexual orientation, including 18 that
also cover anti-transgender crimes.

Five states, including Wyoming, have no hate crimes laws of
their own; 15 states have such laws — but don’t cover anti-LGBT-
crimes.

Jenny Pizer, law and policy director for the LGBT-rights group
Lambda Legal, said the state and federal laws have proven to be
important in both practical and symbolic ways but are also a
disappointment to many “because they only do so much.”

She questioned their deterrent effect on perpetrators consumed
by “irrational hatred” but suggested they had a positive effect
on state and local law enforcement.

She also said the laws may have helped LGBT people feel less
marginalized by social stigma.

“They don’t transform attitudes overnight, or even over decades
for some people,” Pizer said. “But they do help, and that
matters.”

https://www.apnews.com/a6d811ece9254facbc68df40d20e931a
 

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