I went to the HRC-organized True Colors concert this weekend. Cyndi Lauper urged us all to write our legislators and push for passage of new hate crimes legislation named after Matthew Shepard. There's a bit of news that was hardly covered here that I found shocking: Matthew Shepard died again yesterday.
The details of his attack, however, were a bit different. This time he was 40, latino, and not gay. Also, he was attacked by a group of as many as 20 men, and it was broad daylight. His name was David Rivas Morales, and he was beaten and left for dead in Austin, Texas.
CNN finally posted the AP news story online a full four and a half hours after it was one of the BBC's most read stories. I guess we're already busy with soldiers dying in Iraq and Paris' latest complaint from her cell. Fortunately, the Brits were enlightened enough to temporarily replace their "most read" story from a woman jailed for ripping off her boyfriend's testicle to the story about Morales. Without that attention, I probably would have missed it as well.
I won't repeat the details of the story, they are available online if you go looking. I'm predicting the mass media will glaze over this one, and the local police will throw up their hands. Nothing will become of this story, and that is more shocking then the event itself. Sorry David, I guess you won't get a bill named after you.
Flown by Mark Mislivec at 04:03 PM on June 21, 2007
