The murder of Matthew Shepard, a gay student at the University of Wyoming, is an outrage and unacceptable to our society. Shepard was beaten, pistol-whipped, tied to a fence and left to die by several young people because of his sexual orientation. Any student death brings sadness. A death caused by this particular kind of violence is appalling. As educators, we work diligently to promote acceptance between diverse groups. When violence and death occur because of hate against an individual聮s differences, it affects all of us.
Matthew聮s murder is not just a gay issue. We must all be concerned about the circumstances of his death. Mathew was killed because he was different. What happened to Matthew could happen to anyone who is not part of the majority population. It is important that we are clear and strong in our support for the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgendered (GLBT) community, as well as other non-majority communities, and view hate crimes against any group as intolerable.
We need to educate ourselves about oppression at all levels, especially how it is manifested against the GLBT communities. Many of our GLBT students, as well as other minority students, face incidents of discrimination, harassment and verbal and physical abuse every day. All hateful acts are not as overt as murder聴most are more subtle, yet still hurtful and denigrating to the targeted individuals. This climate of fear and intimidation cannot be allowed to prevail. We have a responsibility, individually and collectively, to work towards eliminating all forms of oppression, and to confront both overt and subtle hateful actions. All students deserve a safe and respectful educational environment.