Taken from the GLAAD Report

GLAADALERT October 15, 1998
The GLAADAlert is the weekly activation tool of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation
SPECIAL EDITION: THE DEATH OF MATTHEW SHEPARD
As the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community, and our country, mourn the sudden and brutal death of Matthew Shepard, the 21-year-old University of Wyoming student who died early Monday morning from injuries sustained in an anti-gay attack, the media coverage of the events and the larger implications have been extensive. GLAAD has been tracking the coverage, and below is a roundup of the stories which have stood out - for better or worse - in this sorrowful time. This special edition of GLAADAlert has been broken into two parts: news coverage, and columnists and editorials.
NEWS COVERAGE:
ABCNews.com: Online News The Way It Should Be
ABCNews.com's coverage of Matthew Shepard's death was a tremendous illustration of the strengths of online journalism. The web page, which features a map depicting states with and without hate crimes legislation, also includes links to lesbian, gay bisexual and transgender organizations; a scrolling list of comprehensive statistics on anti-gay violence; a video clip of reactions in Wyoming to the murder; and a sidebar discussing whether the anti-gay ads launched last week contribute to a climate of intolerance.
Unfortunately, in its first version, the piece was gravely flawed by an inexcusable poll on their home page, which asked "If a gay person made a pass at you, would you feel flattered, humiliated or angry?" When GLAAD contacted ABCNews.com to point out how reprehensible the question was, they quickly replaced it with the more appropriate "Do you think hate crimes laws should be passed?"
Contact: ABCNews.com via the WWW:
http://www.abcnews.com/service/abc_contactus.html

TIME: "He Was Just Himself"
In the October 19 issue of Time, Assistant Managing Editor Howard Chua-Eoan writes sensitively about the Wyoming murder in a surprisingly personal voice, drawing the reader into a quietly resonant piece examining Shepard's short life in Wyoming and his last hours alive. The piece, entitled "That's not a scarecrow," [referring to the fact that Shepard was initially thought to be a scarecrow by a passerby, who discovered him tied to a fence] opens: "Matthew Shepard was not openly gay. He was just himself. If people asked and he felt comfortable in their presence, he'd say, 'I'm gay.'" The frank and terrible description of what was done, now so familiar to most, still chills the reader as Chua-Eoan paints the picture of the field on which stood the fence to which Shepard was tied. From this image, he goes on to discuss the "dissonant debate over sexual orientation" which is taking place in the United States. He points out the anti-gay ads launched in national newspapers this summer and just released in broadcast form last week, and how they give "a license to hate", in the words of GLAAD's Communications Director Jennifer Einhorn. It ends hauntingly: "He wanted to find love. But as he lay near death, Matthew Shepard, through no fault of his own, had found martyrdom."
Contact: Walter Isaacson, Managing Editor,
Time Magazine, Time-Life Building,
1271 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020,
fax: 212/522-8949,
e-mail: Letters@time.com (include phone and address with all correspondence)

Casper Star-Tribune: Local Newspaper Rises To Tragic Occasion
The Casper Star-Tribune is to be commended for doing what journalism, in times of trial and need, does best: informing a community about events and adding perspective, telling both personal and official stories, bringing people together with words and pictures. The regional paper, which may have had found little reason in the past to cover lesbian and gay issues or bias crimes, ran extensive coverage of Shepard's futile fight for life, death and the ways in which his loss has changed and transformed the region where he lived. In addition to its extensive hard news coverage, the paper published a supportive editorial, and - in a gesture of support for the community at large - prominently printed the symbol being used to remember Matthew: a yellow background with three green rings symbolizing peace, to be displayed in readers' windows as a sign of solidarity with (in the words of the editor) "the gay community that mourns and is terrified at his passing. Display it in honor of his family's loss."
Contact: Mr. David Hipschman, Editor,
Casper Star-Tribune, 170 Star Lane, Casper, WY 82604,
fax: 307.266.0568,
e-mail: letters@trib.com

Denver Post: In The Midst Of The Storm
Reporters J. Sebastian Sinisi and Coleman Cornelius of the Denver Post wrote some of the best "hard news" coverage of the attack on Matthew Shepard attack, his subsequent death, and the role the tragedy has played in galvanizing the lesbian, gay bisexual and transgender community in the area. They have covered both the Shepard murder and an incident which occurred at Colorado State University during its homecoming parade, at which a scarecrow with a sign that read "I'm gay" was placed on a float during the homecoming parade, just days after Shepard was found. In seeking out students, residents, officials and even those who oppose equality for the community, the Denver Post served its readership well in informing them and framing issues with which they will most certainly struggle.
Contact: Ms. Jeanette Chavez, Managing Editor, Denver Post,
1560 Broadway, Denver, CO 80202-5177, fax: 303.820.1369,
e-mail: letters@denverpost.com

Boston Globe: Live From The Fireside Lounge
On October 12, Globe reporter Bob Hohler filed a report from Laramie, Wyoming, having spent a night at the bar where Matthew Shepard had been when he was lured to his death. Hohler writes: "'The fag bashing starts later,' a young man said, sneering as a clutched a beer bottle in one hand, a pool cue in another. No sooner did the words leave the man's mouth Š than three of his friends charged him, shoved him backward and berated him for his incendiary rhetoric." In writing the thorough piece, Hohler also spoke to a University of Wyoming professor, the director of the Wyoming chapter of the ACLU, and an activist friend of Shepard's, as well as bar patrons, painting a picture of a town struggling with itself and the world around it.
Contact: Mr. Gregory L. Moore, Managing Editor, and Mr. Bob Hohler,
Boston Globe, 135 Morrissey Blvd., Dorchester, MA
02125-3338, fax: 617.929.2098,
e-mail: letters@globe.com

Lincoln Journal Star: It Can Happen Here
Cindy Lange-Kubick, writing for the Lincoln Journal Star, covered the reaction of Nebraskans to Matthew Shepard's death. In capturing the essence of the reaction, Lange-Kubick spoke to lesbians and gay men, including some from the University of Nebraska, which was celebrating Coming Out Week on campus. She then tells of the 1993 murder of Harold Grover, who was killed by two men who had left a local gay bar with him; the 1989 murder of J. Eric Jones, who was shot outside a party after anti-gay epithets were made to him, as well as the murder of Brandon Teena, a young Lincoln man who was murdered in an act of transgender bias. Lange-Kubick includes the comments of the co-sponsor of the Lincoln High Gay/Straight/Bisexual Alliance, who tells of the violence her students speak to her about and often don't report, and of the president of a local chapter of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (P-FLAG).
Contact: Ms. Kathleen Rutledge, Managing Editor, and Ms. Cindy Lange-Kubrick,
Lincoln Journal Star, 926 P St., Lincoln, NE 68508-3615,
fax: 402.473.7291

Wired Strategies: "Matthew Shepard Online Resources"
John Aravosis set up a web site devoted to sharing information about Matthew Shepard's condition while he was fighting for his life. Upon Shepard's death, the site became a resource for national, state and local actions remembering him. The site also has an online bulletin board to share thoughts and feelings, and links to newspapers featuring coverage of the Shepard murder and politicians, so that visitors can send feedback and lobby their representatives for hate crimes legislation. A one-man tribute, the work of Aravosis was invaluable for a community separated by geography but united in mourning.
Please thank John for his work, and let him know that it was a moving tribute to someone who deserved such a remembrance. Visit the site online at:
http://www.wiredstrategies.com/shepard.html
Contact: Mr. John Aravosis,
e-mail: john@wiredstrategies.com

USA Today: Cover Story
USA Today's hard news coverage of Shepard's death was commendable. An excellent October 13 cover story by reporter Charisse Jones likened Shepard's murder to the Jasper, Texas incident, and featured extensive discussion on hate crimes including important statistics and quotes from lesbian, gay and progressive community activists including GLAAD Director of Community Relations Cathy Renna.
Contact: Mr. David Mazzarella, Editor, Ms. Charisse Jones,
USA Today, 1000 Wilson Blvd, Arlington, VA. 22209-3901,
fax: 703.247.3108,
e-mail: editor@usatoday.com (include name, address and phone)

COLUMNISTS AND EDITORIALS:
Denver Post: Diane Carman Speaks Out Early And Eloquently
On October 10, Diane Carman, columnist for the Denver Post, wrote one of the earliest and best columns to deal with the brutal assault on Matthew Shepard. In discussing the murder of James Byrd Jr., the African-American man in Texas who was beaten and dragged to his death behind a truck this past June, Carman points out inconsistencies in current arguments being made against hate crimes legislation covering sexual orientation. "If you listened to the opponents of laws designating gay bashing as a hate crime," she writes, "you would think there really was some fundamental difference between being a black man, who is beaten and dragged behind a truck, and being a gay man, who is beaten, his skull crushed, and left on a fence to die." And in what has become an eloquent answer to those who can maintain that hate crimes laws give "special" rights to community members, Carman speaks unequivocally: "[T]he opportunity to be threatened, humiliated and to live in fear of being beaten to death is the only 'special right' our culture bestows on homosexuals."
Carman's October 13 column, "This, not tolerance, is the sin," follows up with the rationalizations offered by Shepard's accused murders, who say that they wanted to humiliate Shepard for having made a pass at one of them. She then talks about the homecoming incident at Colorado State University. Carman's final words ring clear: "In the face of all this ignorance, violence, hostility, and unabashed bigotry, there are some living in Laramie, Fort Collins, Denver, Boulder, Colorado Springs - everywhere across America - who will say that teaching understanding and tolerance of homosexuality is what's really immoral."
Contact: Ms. Jeanette Chavez, Managing Editor, and Ms. Diane Carman, Columnist,
Denver Post, 1560 Broadway, Denver, CO 80202-5177,
fax: 303.820.1369,
e-mail: letters@denverpost.com, dicarman@aol.com

Newsday Makes The Point
Columnist Sheryl McCarthy's October 15 column in Newsday, entitled "Perhaps Time Will Mute Society's Haters," draws interesting parallels between the oppression of African-Americans and women and the continuing discrimination against members of the lesbian and gay community. McCarthy writes, "How easy it is to tolerate the denigration of others once we've begun to rise out of the morass of our own denigration." McCarthy validly maintains that "the main weapon against antigay violence, however, is the remaining minority of us who don't think homosexuality is a sin, and our refusal to tolerate slurs and attacks on homosexuals by our friends, relatives, colleagues and lawmakers."
In addition, Newsday ran an op-ed calling for the passage of hate crimes legislation in New York state, which has been languishing in the State Senate for years, and a viewpoint piece on Shepard's death written by a Long Island man who discussed anti-gay initiatives by politicians and the impact they have.
Contact: Mr. Robert Brandt, Managing Editor,
Newsday, 235 Pinelawn Road, Melville, NY 11747-4250,
fax: 516.843.2986,
e-mail: letters@newsday.com

Los Angeles Times: Statistics Aren't Everything
The Tuesday, October 13 Los Angeles Times op-ed, "Mindless Murder," makes the important point that numbers cannot tell the entire story of violence perpetrated against the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. "Some hate crimes are never reported to law enforcement officers. Some police departments are sloppy about keeping up on statistics. And in a number of areas only the most serious crimes Š are reported." This reminder is especially important when discussing anti-gay bias crimes, which have been proven by numerous studies to be underreported and undercounted.
Contact: Ms. Janet Clayton, Editorial Page Editor,
Los Angeles Times, Times Mirror Square, Los Angeles, CA 90053,
fax: 213.237.7679,
e-mail: letters@latimes.com

USA Today: Great Opening, Wrong Close
In the October 15 "Today's Debate" section of the USA Today Editorials Page, the newspaper ran a thoughtful editorial calling for the inclusion of sexual orientation in the federal hate crimes laws. The editorial closes with the statement: "Identifying sexual orientation as an aggravating factor is not the same as enacting gay rights legislation. If that's part of some mysterious 'homosexual agenda,' then so is the preamble to the Declaration of Independence and the equal-protection [sic] clause of the Constitution."
Underneath, however, Robert Knight of the Family Research Council (FRC) is then given a platform with which to spin the messages of religious political extremist groups like the FRC, giving the group's take on the Shepard murder: that hate crimes laws aren't needed because they will somehow criminalize ideological dissention with groups covered by the statutes. This has been the battle cry of religious political extremists since the discussion began last week, and it is absurd. One's right to free expression ends where it begins infringe upon the rights and well-being of others. These laws do not criminalize thoughts, no matter how repugnant. By giving Knight the pulpit from which to manipulate the reality of protective laws, USA Today grants legitimacy to an organization whose own extremism should be considered heavily when representatives are consulted as "experts."
Contact: Ms. Karen Jurgensen, Editorial/Opinion Page Editor,
USA Today, 1000 Wilson Blvd., Arlington, VA 22209-3901,
fax: 703.247.3108,
e-mail: editor@usatoday.com

George F. Will: The Trouble With Smugness
In his syndicated October 15 column, "The Trouble With 'Hate Crimes'". George F. Will takes up the hate crimes discussion, and falsely determines that hate crimes legislation is an "imprudent extension of identity politics". Arguing that a hate crimes law would not have punished Shepard's murderers any more harshly than without it, Will characterizes the logical extension of these statutes as "inquisitorial questionings" regarding motives and thoughts. Will's willingness to overlook the violence that the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community faces is a sad testament to the very need to look it squarely in the eye.
Contact: Mr. George F. Will,
1208 30th St. NW, Washington, DC 20007
… Mr. Alan Shearer, Editorial Director, The Washington Post Writers Group, 1150 15th St. NW, 9th Floor, Washington, DC 20071-0002

The New York Times: Rich Is Golden
New York Times columnist Frank Rich's October 14 "Journal" column, entitled "The Road To Laramie" featured a simple, boldfaced, prominent sub-heading: "Matthew Shepard, 1976-1998." Rich's piece is moving and insightful, examining how the ads produced by a coalition of religious political extremist organizations including the Center for Reclaiming America and Coral Ridge Ministries, work to create a world where members of the community, seen as "sinful and sick", can fall prey to bigotry created by the very people who pretend to preach "hope".
Rich closes his piece contrasting the appearance of one mother in the ads, condemning her son for the "bad choice" of being gay. Rich asks, "Is it that mother who speaks for American values, or is it Matthew's?" The piece concludes by quoting Matthew Shepard's mother, who said, "Go home, give your kids a hug, and don't let a day go by without telling them you love them."
Contact: Mr. Frank Rich, Columnist,
The New York Times, 229 West 43rd St., 10th Floor, New York, NY 10036

Philadelphia Inquirer: A Picture's Worth A Thousand Words
The Opinion page of October 14's Philadelphia Inquirer features a cartoon commentary about the Shepard murder that speaks volumes in a small space. The drawing features a crowd of various types of people: a construction worker, an elderly woman, and a priest, among others. They all hold signs, with slogans like "Why Don't They Just Be Straight?", "Gays Are Sick, They Can Be Cured", and "Gays Are like Kleptomaniacs", making references to recent homophobic incidents including the "conversion" ad campaign and a comment made by Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott. The simple caption underneath the drawing: "Unindicted Co-Conspirators".
Contact: Ms. Jane Eisner, Opinion Page Editor,
Philadelphia Inquirer, 400 N. Broad St., Philadelphia, PA 19130-4015,
fax: 215.854.5884,
e-mail: inquirer.editorial@phillynews.com




The GLAADAlert is the weekly activation tool of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. GLAAD promotes fair, accurate and inclusive representation in the media as a means of challenging homophobia and all forms of discrimination based on sexual orientation or identity.
Contact GLAAD by e-mail at glaad@glaad.org or by phone at 213.658.6775 (LA), 212.807.1700 (NY), 415.861.2244 (SF), 202.986.1360 (DC), 404.876.1398 (Atlanta) and 816.756.5991 (Kansas City)
Feel free to pass GLAADAlert on to friends, family and associates!
Report defamation in the media by calling GLAAD's Toll-Free AlertLine! 1-800-GAY-MEDIA (1-800-429-6334)
Visit GLAAD Online at http://www.glaad.org
"GLAAD" and "Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation" are registered trademarks of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, Inc. GLAADAlert may be freely distributed and reprinted in all forms of media under the condition that any text used carry the full attribution of "Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD)."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) glaad@glaad.org
TO REPORT DEFAMATION IN THE MEDIA - Call GLAAD's Alertline at 1.800.GAY.MEDIA or go to the GLAAD Web Site at www.glaad.org and report through our Alertline Online.
TO JOIN GLAAD AND RECEIVE GLAAD's QUARTERLY IMAGES MAGAZINE, call 1.800.GAY.MEDIA or join on the Web today at www.glaad.org/glaad/join/join-about.html
TO SUBSCRIBE TO GLAAD-Net, GLAAD's electronic mailing list, send e-mail to majordomo@vector.casti.com with the message "Subscribe GLAAD-Net"
GLAAD is a national organization that promotes fair, accurate and inclusive representation as a means of challenging discrimination based on sexual orientation or identity.






This page hosted by Get your own Free Home Page