Murder Of Matthew Shepard Research Paper

The murder of Matthew Shepard who was gay and only had 21 year’s old, happened in the state of Wyoming in 1999. Just before Matthew was murdered, he was in a bar and ask Russell Henderson and Aaron McKinney for a ride home. These two agreed to take Matthew home, however they had different intentions. “Subsequently, Shepard was robbed, severely beaten, and tied to a fence in a remote area” (Burns & McNamara, 2008, p. 182). Unfortunately, the attack on Matthew left him with a fractured skull and severe brain damage. This cause death of Shepard four days after the attack occur. There was no doubt this was a hate crime that Aaron and Russel committed against Shepard just because of his homosexual orientation.
This author believes that the killing

of Matthew Sheppard has advance the acceptance of the LGBT lifestyle. One of the main reason is because it is more common now on days for homosexuals to freely express themselves to the world about their different sexual attractions. Moreover, Pew Research Center (2013) mentioned, “America’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender adults (92%) say society has become more accepting of them in the past decade and an equal number expect it to grow even more accepting in the decade ahead” (p.2). Also, whites are the race that have the better acceptance average of the gay and lesbian lifestyle (Pew Research, 2008). This is because whites have more interaction at work or in communities with gays or lesbians. This creating whites to have better acceptances towards the LGBT then other race.
Even though, LGBT lifestyle has been more accepted in the last decade, the police subculture doesn’t see it the same way. The fact that the position of a police officer is more oriented towards males with macho attitudes, has cause officers to be homophobic; which leads them to thinking that femininity is equated with weakness (Burns & McNamara, 2008). It is common for gay offices to receive discriminatory and harassment’s acts from their colleagues. This demonstrates that gay officers have not been accepted in the police subculture and that things need to change if equality is going to someday arise in this subculture.