MillerCoors Steps Up for Anti-Hate

MillerCoors has joined Judy Shepard in support of the Matthew Shepard Foundation (MSF) and its continued commitment to ensure that addressing hate is a top priority in our schools and workplaces. MillerCoors, a national sponsor of MSF, announced it will match 100% of the first $10,000 in donations through the Campaign to Erase Hate website, www.MatthewShepard.org.

“Through our ongoing commitment to the Matthew Shepard Foundation, we hope we can be part of the solution for erasing hate in our society,” Doug Sanborn, MillerCoors brand manager, LGBT, said. “Through this matching funds campaign, we hope to raise awareness and raise crucial funding needed to equip individuals with the necessary tools to discuss and address hate issues,” he added.
Judy Shepard is the mother of Matthew Shepard.  Matthew Shepard was brutally murdered in Laramie Wyoming over 10 years ago because he was gay.

Orlando Pride Delivers Serious Themes

From orlandosentinel.com.

On the 10th anniversary of the murder of gay University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard and a few weeks before Floridians vote on an amendment to restrict gay rights, Orlando’s “Come Out With Pride” event Sunday was as much about self-preservation as pride.

Emotional pleas from the parents of slain gay men were followed by emotional pleas from political activists to defeat Amendment 2, which would put a ban against gay marriage into the Florida Constitution. Opponents say it would also jeopardize domestic-partner benefits for unmarried couples.

“I don’t want to beat it by 40 percent. I want to show the majority of Floridians are against the discrimination that Amendment 2 represents,” said state Rep. Scott Randolph.

Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer also voiced his opposition to Amendment 2, which requires 60 percent of the vote to win.

Remembering…..A Tribute to Matthew Shepard

It was ten years ago Today that an openly gay Wyoming college student by the name of Matthew Shepard was found tied to a fence, after being savagely beaten and left stranded. The beating was so brutal that a description of his injuries, even a decade later, is hard to imagine and difficult to listen to. Five days later, he was dead.

“His head trauma consisted of a massive blow to the right side of his head,” Rulon Stacey of Poudre Valley Hospital told reporters at the time. “It fractured his skull from behind his head in a horizontal fashion to in front of his right ear.”

The Laramie Police ruled it a hate crime.  An international outcry for tougher hate crime laws came shortly after.

In 2007, HR 1952, also known as the Matthew Shepard Act was introduced by Sen. Edward Kennedy.  The bill would expand the1969 US Federal hate-crime law to include crimes motivated by a victim’s actual or perceived gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability. The bill passed the senate, but was ultimately dropped due to opposition from conservative groups, such as the American Family Association and President George W. Bush.  John McCain was absent and did not vote on this bill!