Hate crimes are one of the most difficult crimes to classify. The best way to understand them is to study and investigate every aspect of offenses that could be associated with hate. While most hate crimes are against one's ethnicity or religious beliefs, it is worthy to note that there is an increase in recent crimes against homosexuals.
             Matthew Shepard, a 21 year-old student, had been lured from a campus bar shortly after midnight on October 7 by two men who told him they were gay. He was driven to a remote area near the Sherman Hills neighborhood east of Laramie, tied to a split-rail fence, tortured, beaten and pistol-whipped by his attackers, while he begged for his life; he was then left for dead in near freezing temperatures. A cyclist who found him on Snowy Mountain View Road at 6:22 pm, some 18 hours after the attack, at first mistook him for a scarecrow. He was unconscious and suffering from hypothermia. His face was caked with blood, except where it had been partially washed clean by tears.
             Matthew died at 12:53 am on Monday October 12th 1998, at Poudre Valley Hospital in Fort Collins, Colorado, with his family at his bedside. Hospital officials said Matthew had a fracture from behind his head to just in front of his right ear and a massive brain stem injury which affected his vital signs, including his heart beat, body temperature and other involuntary functions. He was so badly injured in the attack that doctors were unable to operate. He never regained consciousness after being found, and remained on full life support.
             Shepard was killed to make a point. His fragile, broken body was left strung up like an animal as a clear message to gay men everywhere. Such acts are to ridicule and dehumanize people. It makes one feel as if they're not living a life of equal value. Gay-bashers are psychologically disturbed individuals, who may even be closet cases themselves. They may have deep feelings of insecurity about
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