A Reminder

It's important to remember -- even belatedly. Last October was the 10th year since Matthew Shepard's murder. Savagely beaten and tied to a fence in the Wyoming prairie -- the only places on his face free of blood were where his tears had fallen -- the 21-year-old gay college student was discovered the next day by a cyclist who thought he was a scarecrow. Shepard died five days later. Most evidence suggests the two young killers were fueled by drugs and homophobia.

But, trite as it sounds, his death did not go unnoticed. Shepard became a symbol in the battle to protect gay people from hate crimes. Those crimes still exist, but -- a decade later -- a majority of Americans appear to accept gays. They might not want them to marry. They might not want to get too close to them. But they don't want to exterminate them. The subsequent humanization of this innocent kid was one small step along the way.