Passage of the Matthew Shepard Act

22nd of October 2009

MATTHEW SHEPARD ACT

THE PASSAGE OF NEW HATE CRIMES LEGISLATION



Today is a truly monumental day for all Homosexuals within the United States. The United States Senate ratified the Matthew Shepard Act (Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2007) and is sending it to President Obama for his consideration.



This has been a long battle and with the passage of this legislation, we are able to take one step closer to being free individuals graced with the exact same rights, privileges and protections as every other US citizen. I am ecstatic to report that within the past two weeks, President Obama has said that he will sign this important legislation when it is passed by the Senate. For those of you who see this as unnecessary, frivolous or wish to perceive this as a special law by a group seeking special inclusion; I would challenge that discernment.



I was a victim of a hate crime, and while I was not physically beaten, the scars are very close to the surface. What happened to me placed me in a truly unique position in that I was asked to address the Committee on Small Business House of Representatives (104th Congress Second Session on the 17th of July 1996) for the ENDA Bill (Employment Non-Discrimination Act). In doing so I met others who had been beaten, some were presumed to be gay and harassed due to those opinions and others like me who had been harassed and then fired simply because we were gay.



All of the witnesses that shared the podium with me in addressing both Congressional and Representative Leaders share a troubling commonality; other citizens of this country loathed us to the degree of taking action against us. There is nothing more troubling than to know you are hated by others for something you have no control over. If you think this law is asking for special rights, then read what Mr. Ernest Dillon, a US Postal Employee from Detroit, Michigan endured!



Mr. Dillon had no overt signs of being gay. In fact, he stands approximately 6’ 2” with broad shoulders and a strong demeanor. He carries himself like every other masculine man with no outwardly visible effeminate traits. He was a notably good employee who received commendations and awards for exceptional service. Unfortunately, four of his team members did not know, but assumed that Mr. Dillon was a gay man. They taunted and harassed him for over a year. Mr. Dillon reported their behavior to supervisors who did nothing to disarm the situation. By not taking action against the men, they inevitably gave their consent for it to persist. One evening after work, the four men cornered Mr. Dillon inside a fenced in area protecting the postal vehicles and they beat him. As they beat him, they continuously yell racial slurs like faggot, queer, girl and many others taunts to ensure Mr. Dillon knew why he was being beaten. They pounded him so severely that he almost died.



The four men were so smug with their audacious actions that they actually bragged to police and Federal Authorities about kicking the ass of a faggot. The problem wasn’t that the authorities didn’t want to prosecute the four men; they were arrested and brought up on as many charges that could legally be hoisted upon them. The problem is that there was no Federal Law that these men broke in thrashing one of their own on Federal property. Had they taken action off of Postal property, the local police could have prosecuted them, however the brutality of their actions was done on Federal land and therefore it was a Federal matter, to be prosecuted by Federal Laws. The quandary was, that there are no Federal Laws that protected Mr. Dillon, or the countless people like him or me from the actions of those who must HATE instead let live.



The Federal Judge sequestered himself for the better part of a day searching for anything that he could use against these four men who so shamelessly beat another life due to their own perceptions. In his degust and on the record, the Judge stated that in an effort to find any law in which to imprison the four men before him, but to his surprise he was unable to find anything with which he could use against those men. They walked out of the Federal Courthouse free of any charges and were able to even keep their jobs as postal workers.



Mr. Dillon received no justice for the crimes committed against him and neither did I. My situation was no where close to that suffered by Mr. Dillon, and if you consider there to be solace in that The Thomson Corporation was forced to spend over one million dollars fighting my law suit against them for illegally firing me because I was gay; then you might be happy. I can tell you that there is no amount of money that can remove the pain and harm caused by those individuals who harassed me for months trying to get me to leave that job. When I would no leave, they eventually trumped up ridiculous charges and fired me. I only found out after I lost the law suit that the law firm hired to fight me cost Thomson over seven hundred thousand dollars. The second chair counsel person was vicious against me during depositions, because as a lesbian she thought I was frivolously suing a good company. However, when she found proof that I was right and Thompson was covering up their sad ineptness, she became extremely sick and vigorously tried to get off my case. She didn’t want to pursue the second chair against me, but was forced to continue as originally selected to do. I later was told by a woman who would know the following facts, that she received weekly reports for a team of private investigators who followed me 24 x 7 for over five years to dig up any dirt on me that could be used to smear me during my law suit against them.



This law will make the acts from those four men who beat and nearly killed another man because they perceived him to be gay, against the law. Their actions were brought about because he was a soft spoken man who didn’t act like a thug from the streets. This law may not protect me against companies like the Thomson Corporation (Thomson Financial, Thomson Publishing, Information Access Company, Lord Thomson’s Publishing Empire and Thomson Media…) from their outright rape of an employee due to that person’s sexual orientation, but it is a great step forward in protecting the innocent against those who hate us simply because we are gay.



Stand with me in applauding the tireless efforts of Mr. and Mrs. Shepard, who have fought for this bill after the loss of their son, Matthew who was brutally beat and left for dead with the lights of Laramie, Wyoming off in the distance. The two men who planned to rob the defenseless fag might have stopped their actions at theft if this law had been enacted before Matthew lost his life in such a heinous way.



Stand with me in applauding the work of all the men and women who have suffered at the hands of such insufferable people. Stand with me in applauding the men and women who have been fighting for the passage of this bill since before the Stonewall Riots.





LOVE IS NEVER WRONG ~ HATE IS NEVER RIGHT





You humble servant – Todd M Dobson