Debunkg Stephen Jimenez's Effort To De-Gay Matthew Shepard's Murr | Media Matters for Ameri

Contents:

• KATE MCKNON OPENS UP ABOUT BEG GAY DURG GOLN GLOB
• DEBUNKG STEPHEN JIMENEZ'S EFFORT TO DE-GAY MATTHEW SHEPARD'S MURR
• JUDGE REJECTS 'GAY PANIC' AS DEFENSE MURR CASE
• RENNTRE GRATUE GAY à PARIS, (75)
• THE 'GAY PANIC' DEFENSE
• MARK-ALLENGAY
• ‘SUPERSTORE’ ACTOR RELISH TE-TO-LIFE GAY FILIPO ROLE

KATE MCKNON OPENS UP ABOUT BEG GAY DURG GOLN GLOB

Ni Santos famoly plays Mateo Liwanag who ends up tellg his -workers that he is gay and has been datg Jeff, a former District Manager of the St. Televisn|Kate McKnon Opens Up About Beg Gay Durg Goln Glob ADVERTISEMENTIn an emotnal speech, the edian says the only thg that ma beg a lbian ls sry when she was younger was seeg Ellen DeGener on TV. In her speech, McKnon, seemgly holdg back tears, spoke ndidly and wh humor about beg gay and the role DeGener played her unrstandg of herself, and what means for L.

I have to expla that one more: In 1997, when Ellen’s s was the height of s populary, I was my mother’s basement liftg weights ont of the mirror and thkg, “Am I gay?

DEBUNKG STEPHEN JIMENEZ'S EFFORT TO DE-GAY MATTHEW SHEPARD'S MURR

Journalist Stephen Jimenez's The Book of Matt: Hidn Tths about the Murr of Matthew Shepard mak the bombshell claim that illic dg e, not homophobia, was the central factor the gay Universy of Wyomg stunt's btal 1998 murr. There was no feral or Wyomg hate crime law, but media reports and McKney's e of a “gay panic” fense at trial dited that anti-gay bias motivated the crime. The letter exprsed disbelief that McKney had claimed “gay panic” at trial, bee "[d]eep down si, a small part of him really liked some homosexual actn.

” “If Aaron McKney, who reportedly targeted Matthew bee he was gay, was not 'straight' himself, what else was gog on that October night when he unleashed his rage? Anonymo or simply unreliable sourc are at the heart of Jimenez's effort to -gay Shepard's murr.

JUDGE REJECTS 'GAY PANIC' AS DEFENSE MURR CASE

What's more, Jimenez says, the two had had sex before - suggtg that homophobia uldn't possibly have been a factor Shepard's murr.

Far more notable is his e of the anti-gay ephets “fag” and “queer” to scribe Shepard. DISMISSING EVIDENCE OF HOMOPHOBIA. For an thor tryg to make the se that homophobia played no role Shepard's murr, his killer's e of c, anti-gay language would seem to pose a signifint problem.

RENNTRE GRATUE GAY à PARIS, (75)

McKney - who scribed himself as a “dnk homofobick [sic]” a letter wrten om prison - was merely tryg to imate the thug image of the gangsta rappers he admired, acrdg to Jimenez. ” To hear Jimenez tell , Price's terview and McKney's “gay panic” fense were part of an elaborate se ncted to ver up their e and sellg of meth.

One of the sourc McKney  to rroborate this narrative is a Denver meth addict known simply as Joan, who sisted that homophobia played no part Shepard's ath. But if sertg a gay angle was simply a legal survival strategy for Price and McKney the weeks and months after the crime, why did McKney ntue to scribe himself as “homofobick” when he was prison - long after he had any hope of gettg off on a “gay panic” fense?

THE 'GAY PANIC' DEFENSE

“I have long believed that Aaron McKney targeted Matthew and jtified his horrific savagery bee he saw Matthew as beg gay, ” Newb said. Although right-wg media have rejoiced at the arrival of The Book of Matt - nvced that expos an LGBT “grievance dtry” found on “li” and ver-ups, Jimenez's repeated njecture, unreliable sourc, and stubborn nial of blatant evince of homophobia mark the book as a sub-par work of reportage. A District Court judge Laramie, Wyo., led today that lawyers for a man acced of murrg a gay llege stunt last year may not e a ''gay panic'' fense to jtify the actns of their client.

Although the lg rri no weight beyond Wyomg, some legal experts and gay rights advot said amounted to a polil victory for gay men and lbians at a time when more fense lawyers are g the strategy of stg the fendant as victim -- wh some succs -- to obta lighter exprsed anger at the lg, sayg reflects the growg fluence of some gay and lbian groups that have always mand passn and equal jtice and now appear vengeful rather than sympathetic, nyg the acced the only possible fense. Dobbs, a lawyer and gay rights activist New York.

''Gay polil pal has bee so substantial that n now be ed to railroad others and promise the abily of a fendant to get a fair trial. ''In a gay panic fense, a ncept that do not exist statute law, a fendant tri to w sympathy om the jury by characterizg the victim as a homosexual predator and by monstratg that the fendant found the advanc so repugnant that he rorted to vlence. ''Even if relevant, '' the judge said of gay panic as a fense, ''the evince will mislead and nfe the jury.

MARK-ALLENGAY

McKney had been a victim of homosexual abe the gay panic strategy, which almost always volv a man who is facg charg, has gaed wispread e recent years, although only rarely has persuad juri to fd fendants guilty of lser crim. Perhaps bee of creased tolerance general toward gay men and lbians, juri more often have ignored the fendant's psychology as a reason to exce a vlent act.

''It is a sperate fense, to beg wh, '' said Nanci Clarence, a crimal fense lawyer San Francis who has worked on many s volvg gays as victims and wns. ''You are askg jurors to buy the notn that ternalistic homophobia n be ed to jtify killg. McKney of homosexual abe he had suffered as a child.

‘SUPERSTORE’ ACTOR RELISH TE-TO-LIFE GAY FILIPO ROLE

Beatrice Dohrn, legal director of the Lambda Legal Defense and Edutn Fund, a gay advocy group New York, said lawyers historilly uld w lighter sentenc, even acqutals, for people acced of vlent crim agast gays simply by playg to a jury's homophobic as Amerins have grown more acceptg of gay men and lbians and more stat are regnizg a victim's sexual orientatn as a basis for prosecutn as a hate crime -- 38 stat now have such signatns, although the feral ernment do not -- fense lawyers are fdg that they n no longer expect the rponse of juri to be based purely on a rult, Ms.

Dohrn said, lawyers began signg a strategy that pats the fendant as victim, sellg juri the ia that the fendant was eher actg out of self-fense agast homosexual advanc or as a nsequence of spend ratnal thkg bee a homosexual advance unloosed paful memori of sexual the number of s creasg, a lloquial phrase, gay panic fense, gaed currency wh gay and lbian groups even as most juri monstrated an unwillgns to nsir the fendant as a victim. Shepard was found outsi Laramie tied to a fence and unnsc, a jury Honolulu found a man guilty of third-gree asslt, a mismeanor, for beatg to ath a gay man who had ma sexual advanc toward him.

Brewer's Bright, who ttified that he was not gay, was sentenced to one year prison and fed $2, 000, promptg advot for gay men and lbians Hawaii to pla that the jury had given to recent years, juri more than a dozen s around the untry have rejected gay panic as a fense. Perhaps the most celebrated se volved Jonathan Schmz, a gut on ''The Jenny Jon Show'' who shot and killed a gay man, Stt Amre, who had said durg a televisn tapg that he had a csh on one Michigan jury's send-gree murr nvictn was overturned on appeal, a send jury nvicted Mr.