See Judy Shepard’s important message

Of all the absolutely shameful things that former President George W. Bush did during those eight looooooong years in ofiice, one of the most shameful was his vetoing the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes bill in 2007. The legislation again failed to get enough support last year but is being re-introduced today  in the House Judiciary Committee and the Human Rights Campaign released the above video in an effort to draw attention to the legislation.

The bill would give the Justice Department the power to investigate and prosecute bias-motivated violence by providing the department with jurisdiction over crimes of violence where the victim is chosen because of the person’s actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability.

As you well know, Judy Shepard’s beautiful son Matthew was murdered a decade ago in a horrible hate crime in Wyoming. Since then tens of thousands more Americans have been the victims of hate violence. His remarkable mom has been a tireless advocate for hate crime laws and LGBT equal rights and everytime I see her, I just want to give her a giant hug for being such an inspiration.

We last spoke in June about a variety of topics and she remarked of the Bush administration: “Oh, it’s been really hard for the community. I just personally feel like we’ve been sort of standing in the same place for eight years. I understand that at the grassroots level we’ve made great strides but at the federal level, we’re still right where we started.pretty much. We’ve educated a lot of legislators and that’s good. I’m looking forward to the next eight years.”

I wondered where Judi gets all the energy to keep doing what she does and she said: “I think Matt gives it to me.”