Debate shifts to LDS over crime bill

A press conference supporting a hate-crimes bill nearly turned into an LDS-Church bashing session Sunday night — almost, but not quite.

Judy Shepard, mother of the murdered gay man Matthew Shepard, spoke at a Salt Lake City town meeting on the need for a bill providing enhanced penalties for crimes motivated by hatred of certain groups.

Also supporting HB68, the bill pending in the Legislature, were Mayor Rocky Anderson; Forrest Crawford, institutional diversity assistant to the president of Weber State University, Ogden; and Rep. David Litvack, D-Salt Lake, sponsor of the bill.

About 130 attended the town meeting in the Salt Lake City-County Building.

Twenty-one-year-old Matthew Shepard was murdered in Laramie, Wyo., in October 1998 by two men who attacked him, tied him to a fence, and beat him because he was gay. The men later were sentenced to life in prison.

His mother came to Utah on Sunday to support the hate-crime bill. A controversial aspect of HB68 is that it specifies that victims of hate crime can be people attacked because of their race, color, disability, religion, sexual orientation, national origin, ancestry, age or gender. A competing measure does not specify these classes.

During a press conference after the town meeting, Shepard, a Wyoming resident, commented on obstacles in Utah to passing a strong law against hate crimes. She believes the term "sexual orientation" is making passage of such a bill difficult.

"In Utah I can identify readily what I think is your largest barrier, and that would be the LDS Church," she said.

Speaking more generally, Shepard said sexual orientation issues are threatening to people who are not familiar with the subject. "I fondly refer to it as selective ignorance. They choose to not educate themselves about the gay and lesbian community so the prejudices just continue," she said.

Certain oppressed groups are singled out for violence, she added. "The African-American community, the Jewish community, and in your state, I must think that sometimes members of the LDS community, are singled out for violence."

It's necessary to define categories in hate-crime legislation so that it's easier to spell out what evidence is needed for prosection of a hate crime, she added.

Litvack stood beside her during the press conference. The Deseret Morning News asked whether he agreed that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the biggest barrier to passage of the legislation.

"No, I respectfully disagree with Judy," he said.

"I don't think it's the LDS Church. I think the LDS Church took a huge step last year in their statement."