Published Friday, February 5,1999, in the San Jose Mercury News

BY JAMES BROOKE New York Times

DENVER -- Last fall, national revulsion over the slaying of Matthew Shepard, a gay college student in Wyoming, seemed strong enough to push legislatures in the Rockies to expand hate crime laws to include ``sexual orientation.'' But this winter lawmakers in Colorado, Idaho, Montana and Utah have defeated bills that would add sexual orientation to lists of groups protected by existing hate crime laws. And in Wyoming, legislators have defeated all efforts to pass that state's first hate crime law.

In New Mexico, which has the region's lone Democratic-controlled legislature, lawmakers are expected to pass a hate crime bill that includes sexual orientation. But Gov. Gary Johnson, a Republican, has vowed a veto, saying, ``All crimes are hate crimes.''

Kerry Lobel, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, a Washington-based group that pushes for hate crime legislation, said: ``We are incredibly disappointed. We look to the Wyoming Legislature for leadership and legislation.''

The votes came as the FBI released its latest tally of hate crimes on Jan. 21. In 1997, sexual orientation was the motivation for 14 percent of reported hate crimes, or 1,102 crimes out of 8,049, the bureau said. Under the bureau's voluntary reporting system, police departments covering about 80 percent of the country's population report hate crimes.

Outside of the Rockies, legislatures in Hawaii, Oklahoma and Virginia are considering hate crime bills that include sexual orientation.

Antipathy toward hate crime legislation seems to stem from several factors, including a belief that the laws would confer special rights on the groups named. A backlash against publicity resulting from the Matthew Shepard killing is another factor.

After ``the vicious smear campaign'' by the national press in the coverage of the murder of the gay 21-year-old, Wyoming became the true victim of bias crime, Sally Vaughan, a resident of Remington, Wyo., complained two weeks ago at a legislative hearing in Cheyenne.

Doug Thompson, who recently formed a Wyoming group, Citizens for Equal Protection, urged lawmakers in Cheyenne to protect all citizens ``and not just a few groups who claim victim status.''

Gov. Jim Geringer of Wyoming, a Republican, gave general support to a hate crime bill but warned legislators about yielding to ``external pressure.''

In the end, a hate crime bill that six weeks ago seemed destined for passage died in the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday.

``The part of the bill that made people the most uncomfortable was the provision for sexual orientation,'' state Sen. John Schiffer, the committee chairman, said Thursday, adding, ``My feeling right now is that the committee is tired of discussing bias crimes.''

A Democratic member of the committee, Sen. Rae Lynn Job, said: ``A lot of people felt that by passing this we were going to give some people more protection than others.''

In Montana, a bill to add sexual orientation to a hate crime bill died in committee last week. In its place, the state Senate passed a bill that would allow a judge to increase penalties for a crime motivated by hate, but it did not specify any protected groups.

``The language is over broad, vague, lacking in specific terms and will be constitutionally challenged,'' said Steve Doherty, a Democratic state senator. ``It is nice sounding fluff.''

The campaign to add sexual orientation to the list of hate crimes has been hampered by the reluctance of the Shepard family to allow their son to become a martyr for a political cause. ``It's a very frightening concept as a parent that your son now becomes a martyr, a public figure for the world,'' Judy Shepard, the young man's mother, told Dateline NBC in an interview that is to be aired tonight. ``He's just our son.''

©1999 Mercury Center.