It Took 11 Years After Matthew Shepard’s Murder for Hate Crimes to Cover Sexual Orientation

The brutal 1998 murder of 21-year-old college student Matthew Shepard that occurred in Wyoming gained national attention because he was targeted for his sexuality. The only federal hate crimes statute at that time stipulated that a hate crime had to interfere with someone participating in a federally-protected activity.

“The federally-protected activity barrier meant a couple of things,” Becky Monroe, civil rights attorney and board member of the Matthew Shepard Foundation, explains to A&E Crime + Investigation. “Previously, federal hate crime charges could be for race, color, religion or national origin. You had to prove not only the motives behind the crime, but that the victim was engaged in a federally-protected activity when they were targeted. That could include voting or attending school.”

Shepard wasn’t engaged involved in federally-protected activities when he was targeted by Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson in October 1989. He was socializing at a bar with McKinney and Henderson, who eventually offered Shepard a ride home. Instead, the duo drove Shepard to a remote rural area where they beat and tortured him, tied him to a split-rail fence and left him to die. Shepard was still alive when a passerby discovered him approximately 18 hours later. He died several days later in the hospital.

Henderson pled guilty to murder and kidnapping and received two life sentences with no chance of parole. He was denied a reduction in sentence in 2024. McKinney was convicted of felony murder, aggravated robbery and kidnapping, and also received two life sentences without the possibility of parole.

After Shepard’s murder, and that of James Byrd Jr.—a Black man murdered in Texas in June 1998 by white supremacists who dragged him for three miles behind a truck—civil rights groups began pushing for change.

Michael Liberman, director of field advocacy for the National Council of Jewish Women, served as chair of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, an umbrella organization of 240 civil rights groups, when it began crafting a hate crime prevention bill to protect all communities.

“It took us 13 years because five times in the 4,000-word act, the words ‘sexual orientation’ appeared. That stopped progress on the bill for the eight years of the Bush administration,” Lieberman tells A&E Crime + Investigation.

In October 2009, President Obama signed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crime Prevention Act into law with Shepard’s parents, Judy and Dennis, present. Shortly after their son’s murder, the Shepards founded the Matthew Shepard Foundation to share his story through community outreach aimed at teaching people to recognize the dignity and equality of all people while identifying and addressing hatred.

“The Shepard-Byrd Act broadens the 1968 federal hate crime statute; it covers actual or perceived gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability in addition to what had been covered before—race, color, religion, national origin,” Monroe says. “That's a truly groundbreaking change. It closed long-standing gaps that had left LGBTQ+ people and people with disabilities without explicit federal protection.”

Lieberman notes that this is the first federal criminal law to mention gender identity.

Under federal law, a hate crime is now defined as a criminal offense against a person or property motivated in whole or part by the offender's bias against a person's race, color, religion, disability, actual or perceived sexual orientation, national origin, gender or gender identity.

The Shepard-Byrd Act offered new tools to investigators and prosecutors and strengthened state and federal partnerships. It also authorized grants to law enforcement authorities to train and do outreach about identifying, reporting and responding to hate crimes, Lieberman says, noting “tens of thousands of law enforcement officials” have benefited from the training.

“If there's a cross that's burned on a Black family's lawn that just moved into the neighborhood, and the police officer that comes to the scene of the crime says, ‘I see trespass. I see unlawful burning,’ and they don't recognize the impact of a burning cross, you're really missing something,” Lieberman continues. “These grants have been absolutely essential in helping to train and do outreach for law enforcement authorities.”

Monroe, who’s trained prosecutors across the country on hate crime prevention, says the grants help the FBI support state and local authorities pursue hate crimes at the state level: “[The grants] recognize that hate crimes investigations and prosecutions are costly, but make a big impact.”

The Shepard-Byrd Act also improved national data collection about hate crimes. In 2024, 17.2% of 11,679 incidents were due to sexual orientation.

“From 1991 to 2024, which is the most recent data we have from the FBI, sexual orientation was either the third or second most frequent hate crime reported,” Lieberman says. “For the FBI to say the second or third most frequent hate crime in America is directed against people on the basis of their sexual orientation, that really matters.”

Prior to the Hate Crimes Prevention Act, there wasn’t clear data about victims targeted for multiple reasons. For example, “Black transgender women are targeted at a much higher rate than white transgender people,” Monroe points out. “It’s looking at the ways in which the intersection of different forms of discrimination can come together.”

A less obvious benefit of the Shepard-Byrd Act involves trust between Americans and law enforcement.

“To effectively enforce hate crimes, it’s incredibly important that communities feel safe reporting, and historically, they may not have,” Monroe explains, noting that many hate crimes go un- or under-reported because the victims don’t trust authorities. “One of the things we did at the Justice Department, and encouraged a lot of state and local law enforcement agencies to do as well, is outreach and engagement.”

Having community-based organizations serve as a bridge between victims and law enforcement helps targeted individuals understand their rights and how those rights can be enforced.

Despite increased awareness about hate crimes, they can be difficult to prove.

“The reason it’s worth that extra step for prosecutors and investigators to [prove] is that hate crimes are often seen as message crimes,” Monroe says. “They're trying to send the message, not only to that individual who was targeted, but to entire communities, that they are not wanted in a particular neighborhood or in a community, or that they are unsafe.”

Monroe recalls the first case brought under the new law, in early 2010.

“Three men brutally assaulted a Navajo man who had developmental disabilities. They branded him with a swastika after taking him to an apartment that had a lot of racist paraphernalia,” she recounts. “The three defendants were indicted by a federal grand jury on one count of conspiracy and one count of violating the Shepard-Byrd Hate Crimes Prevention Act.”

The next year, two men pleaded guilty to one count each of conspiracy to commit a violation of the Shepard-Byrd Act, while the third man pleaded guilty to one count of violating the act. All three were sentenced to time in prison.

The Shepard-Byrd Act has proved especially impactful in states without hate crime laws, like in the 2019 murder of Pebbles LaDime “Dime” Doe, a Black transgender woman in South Carolina. Her killer, Daqua Lameek Ritter, was the first person to be found guilty by trial verdict for a hate crime motivated by gender identity under the Shepard-Byrd Act.

“If it weren't for the federal act, this case probably would not have been brought because South Carolina does not have a hate crimes law,” Monroe says. “This person's life mattered, and it’s really important to let people know we will use every tool to seek justice for them.”

Though the Hate Crime Prevention Act was clearly needed, the ultimate goal is to eventually eradicate hate crimes.

“One of the enduring legacies of the Shepard-Byrd Act, is that after they lost their loved ones, these family members sacrificed everything again to help protect others,” Monroe says. “Every time there’s a prosecution under the Shepard-Byrd Act, James Byrd Jr. and Matthew Shepard are honored.”