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Jewish World Review /Oct. 20, 1998 /1 Mar-Cheshvan 5759
Mona Charen
Using Matthew Shepard's murder
HEADS UP, ALL OF YOU conservatives who thought the Clinton scandal marked the end of
liberal media bias. Think again.
In the wake of the brutal murder of Matthew Shepard in Wyoming, liberal activists and
interviewers on the morning news shows teamed up to lay blame for the crime on the
"Christian right." That this tactic is familiar does not make it any less outrageous or
offensive.
The facts are these: A college student was abducted, tortured and left for dead (his broken
body was tied to a fence for 18 hours) in Wyoming. He died several days later. Police say
the motive for the crime was robbery. But there was also evidence that the two thugs who
committed this act were able to abduct Shepard by at first posing as gay men.
If this sounds familiar, it should. Following the bombing of the Murrah building in Oklahoma
City by a Waco-obsessed fiend, the White House blamed talk radio and, with a wink and a
nod, all conservatives, for creating a climate of anti-government extremism.
A month or two before Matthew Shepard's murder, some conservative Christian groups had
circulated print and television ads suggesting that it is possible to leave gay orientation
behind and even marry and have children. According to the Family Research Council, one
of the groups that sponsored the ads, thousands of men and women have successfully
altered their sexual orientation.
Now, it is understandable that gay activists, who want homosexuality to stand on completely
equal footing with heterosexuality and who are keen to be accepted and approved just the
way they are, find these ads annoying. "Why should we want to change?" they ask. There is
no greater morality or greater happiness to be had by converting to heterosexuality.
But it is quite simply slanderous to argue, as Elizabeth Birch, president of the Human Rights
Campaign, did last week, that those ads are "pumping lies into every community in this
country. They are dangerous and misguided. The results of this campaign are terrifying." Or
to suggest, as Katie Couric seemed to on the "Today Show" that ads like these "prompt
people to say, 'If I meet someone who's homosexual, I'm going to take action and try to
convince them or try to harm them.'"
This is a most cynical use of a tragedy. First, on the matter of "creating a climate of hatred,"
none of those who so glibly suggest that Christian groups incited Matthew Shepard's
murderers has produced one iota of evidence that those two creeps ever saw or read the
advertisements in question. Further, even if they had seen them, it would be hard to
imagine how something as innocuous as suggesting that counseling may help
homosexuals become straight could even in the most twisted mind translate into "Go kill
gays."
In fact, it is far from clear that anti-homosexual animus played any part in Shepard's murder.
It may be that the two killers simply settled on the easiest way to lure an unsuspecting
college student into a deserted area.
There is no question that anti-homosexual bias exists and that it has contributed to violence
against gays. But that bias has been declining sharply over the past several years,
particularly in the wake of the AIDS epidemic, which has generated sympathy for
homosexuals. So if anyone is creating the climate these days, it would seem to be the gay
activists, not the Christian right.
Homosexuals are perfectly within their rights, of course, to lobby for equal moral, political
and legal standing in this society. But it is slimy and disreputable to attempt to tar one's
opponents with the "hate" brush. There may be some Christians who hate gays -- though
that was by no means the message of the ads sponsored by Focus on the Family and the
Family Research Council -- and such hatred cannot be read into mere opposition to the
gay-rights agenda. Moreover, baseless hatred is forbidden to Christians and Jews.
On the other hand, there are certainly a good many gay activists who hate the Christian right
--- and nothing in their credo seems to forbid indulging that hatred
Gay-rights groups and their sympathizers in the broadcast media seized upon this heinous
murder as an opportunity to smear conservative Christians for creating a "climate of hate."
Yeah, right!
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