It's great that the Matthew Shepard Act passed the U.S. Senate. In addition, the passage of this bill is necessary in order to reduce the violence intolerant people have done against LGBT people. Furthermore, since this bill is part of LGBT rights for the protection of that community, the House of Representatives is obligated to pass this bill. Intolerant people who are against the bill have an incorrect view of LGBT rights. Finally, the Matthew Shepard must become law.

Rachel Maddow had Judy Shepard on her show April 30: Here is the transcript from that episode:
MADDOW:  Early on October 7th, 1998, in Laramie, Wyoming, a 21-year-old college student named Matthew Shepard was beaten and tied to a fence and left there to die.  Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson, 21 and 22, at the time, have admitted to the killing.  Henderson told police that he and McKinney lured Mr. Shepard into their truck by pretending to be gay.  They then drove Mr. Shepard to the outskirts of town where they beat and robbed him and tied him up and left him for dead. 

About 18 hours after McKinney and Henderson drove away, Matt Shepard was discovered by a passing biker and rushed to the hospital where he died of his injuries five days after the crime on October 12th.  In March of the following year, which was just a few months after her son‘s death, Matt Shepard‘s mom, Judy, went to Washington to push for an expansion of American hate crimes legislation.  The concept behind this kind of legislation is often misconstrued but here‘s the deal as I understand it.  The idea is that the Federal Justice Department can get involved in a case to help local authorities or even to take the lead on a case if need be, in prosecuting individual serious violet crimes and murders in which the victim was selected on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability.  The idea that crimes like that are intended not only to hurt or murder an individual but to terrorize an entire community.  And so there is a national interest in ensuring that those crimes are solved and prosecuted, particularly if local law enforcement doesn‘t want to because they are blinkered by the same prejudice that led to the crime in the first place.  Judy Shepard has been fighting for 10 years now to get hate crimes law expanded to cover things like sexual orientation.  And yesterday, she was in D.C. as the House passed a new expanded bill by a nearly 75-vote margin.  That was her silver lining yesterday, the big deal.  Though a little cloud was having to hear Republican Congresswoman Virginia Foxx of North Carolina make this argument on the House floor against the bill.   (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) REP. VIRGINIA FOXX ®, NORTH CAROLINA CONGRESSWOMAN:  There was a bill - the Hate Crimes Bill that‘s called the Matthew Shepard Bill, is named after a very unfortunate incident that happened where a young man was killed.  But we know that that young man was killed in the commitment of a robbery.  It wasn‘t because he was gay.  This bill was named for him - a Hate Crimes Bill was named for him, but it‘s really a hoax that that continues to be used as an excuse for passing these bills.  (END VIDEO CLIP) MADDOW:  It wasn‘t because he was gay.  That‘s a hoax.  That‘s an excuse.  Joining us now is Judy Shepard.  Mrs. Shepard, thank you so much for coming on the show and for agreeing to let us play that sound bite now so we could get your reaction to it now.  Thank you.  JUDY SHEPARD, MOTHER OF MATTHEW SHEPARD:  No.  Thank you, Rachel, for having me on.  I welcome the opportunity to address the issue.   MADDOW:  You probably knew there would be a contentious debate surrounding this legislation in the House.  But did you have any idea that you were in for that kind of personal attack on your son?  SHEPARD:  Well, you know, I - attacks of lesser consequence, I guess, have been said about Matt since the beginning.  And in 2007 when it passed the House, the same sort of vitriol was spoken from the floor then as well.  I did not ever expect it to ever be called a hoax.  Anyone who has done any research into what happened to Matt knows it was a hate crime, even though technically, we couldn‘t prosecute it that way because there was no hate crime law in Wyoming at all and no federal hate crime law protecting sexual orientation.  So we couldn‘t call it a hate crime, but it was.  MADDOW:  Congresswoman Foxx later said that she was clarifying her comments.  She said that Matt‘s death was a tragedy.  She said the term “hoax” was a poor choice of words.  I have to say that doesn‘t really sound like an apology to me, but I don‘t want to put those words in your mouth.  Has it changed the way you feel about it?  SHEPARD:  No.  MADDOW:  No, it doesn‘t?   SHEPARD:  It is.  It‘s apologizing for semantics, not for her sentiment or actually, what she said, her insensitivity and her ignorance.  She‘s apologizing for semantics. MADDOW:  Despite this tremendous ugliness from Congresswoman Foxx, which I‘m sorry you have to hear again on this show.  But I‘m glad you said it was OK for us to play it so we could talk about it.  The good news is that the Hate Crimes Bill did pass in the House yesterday by that very large margin.  Do you think that it‘s going to make it through the Senate, too?  And can you tell us what would change for Americans if it did become law?  SHEPARD:  Well, I‘m very hopeful this time.  It will be more difficult in the Senate because it‘s - the rules are different.  The way they have - the procedure is different.  We know we have the president‘s support.  We know we have the support of the senators.  It‘s just how it‘s presented now that will be the key.  I‘m very hopeful that all legislation protecting the gay and lesbian community will be addressed during Obama‘s administration and how it will change in Matt‘s case in particular, in Wyoming, because the federal law did not cover sexual orientation as a protected category.  Laramie was not eligible for federal resources, for federal financial help.  They had to furlough four employees to pay for the investigation in the subsequent trials.  That‘s not right.  That‘s not right.  And in any community, as you said earlier, where it appears that the legal entities are not prosecuting a crime because of their own prejudice, the Federal Government can step in and actually do the right thing.  This is an amazing advance of what already exists.   MADDOW:  What do you say to people who argue that there isn‘t a national interest, there isn‘t a federal interest justifying why the Justice Department should help out in cases like this, that cases like this shouldn‘t be privileged over murder or a serious violent crime that was committed not because of bias?  SHEPARD:  Right.  You know, I hear that argument all the time, special rights for special people.  It‘s not even the point.  What this does is bring us up to a level of equality in the prosecution.  As you said, personal bias in officers or prosecution is absolutely indicative of what‘s going to happen sometimes.  Not always, but sometimes.  And we need the vehicle to be able to address it somehow.  And the crimes that are committed as hate crimes, they‘re meant to send a message to a community not to an individual.  It‘s a totally different type of crime.  MADDOW:  Judy, shortly after Matt was killed, you started a foundation in his name, the Matthew Shepard Foundation.  I have to ask you how that‘s going.   SHEPARD:  You know, we‘re doing OK.  We‘re very small - five employees.  And we have an office in Denver.  We do amazing things in education.  We have a couple of killer Web sites that are very, very important and dynamic and full of information.  We invite everyone to visit us.  I think we‘re doing OK.  You know, we‘re suffering from the same dilemma, all nonprofits are right now, with the very hard time finding funding.  But we‘ll be OK.  MADDOW:  Judy Shepard, mother of Matthew Shepard and the executive director of Matthew Shepard Foundation, thank you so much for making time to join us tonight.  I know it wasn‘t easy logistically, so I‘m particularly appreciative.  Thanks.   SHEPARD:  Well, thank you, Rachel.   MADDOW:  You can find out more information about the Matthew Shepard Foundation at “MatthewShepard.com.”  There‘s tons of good outreach material, educational material as well, posted at “MatthewsPlace.com”  That‘s a site that particularly is useful for young people and their families. 

Judy shepherd should be lauded as one of america's great heros or perhaps I should say heroine for what she has and no doubt will accomplish on behalf of not just her son but the homosexual community in general.

Thank you again miss dorsey for sharing this with us.