By Caitlin Walsh, Columnist
Is suicide a hate crime? That has been one of the many questions raised during the debate over Tyler Clementi's suicide. Should his roommate and girlfriend be charged with a hate crime? Broadcasting Clementi's sexual encounters online is completely reprehensible and a violation of Tyler's privacy. The two should be found guilty under New Jersey's invasion of privacy laws and expelled from Rutgers. But, they did not commit a hate crime.
Though it sounds insensitive, they did not push Tyler off the George Washington Bridge. The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Questioning (LGBTQ) community's talk of Tyler as a martyr isn't accurate. Yes, Tyler did commit suicide, primarily because of the harassment he received, but at most it just adds him to the long and growing list of LGBT youth who have committed suicide. All martyrs are victims but not all victims are martyrs.
Tuesday, October 12th marks the 12th anniversary of Matthew Shepard's death. Matthew Shepard was a 21-year-old college student from the University of Wyoming who was robbed, beaten and murdered because he was gay. You may be familiar with his story if you have read or seen The Laramie Project. Shepard's two killers were tried and found guilty of felony murder and are serving two life sentences. They were not charged with a hate crime because there was no Wyoming statue allowed a hate crime charge.
Finally in 2009, President Obama signed the Matthew Shepard Act into law and federal hate crime legislation was expanded to cover situations like Shepard's. Before hate crime legislation only covered crimes committed because of a victims race, color, religion or national origin and to prevent the victim from participating in a federally sponsored activity, such as voting or attending school. The 2009 act removes the federal activity limitation and adds gender, sexual orientation, gender identity and disability to the list of protected characteristics.
More recently, and much closer to Hofstra, nine suspects are charged with abduction, unlawful imprisonment and sodomy in a hate crime attack that occurred in the Bronx earlier this month. The suspects are all part of a gang who brutally attacked and sodomized a 30-year-old man and two teenagers because the man was openly gay. The gang forced the teens to attack the man when the gang found out the teens had sex with the man. The New York City council leader called this attack the worst hate crime the city has seen.
When the circumstances of Tyler's suicide came out, there was a flood of messages in support of gay rights and condemning gay bullying. Many have shared Ellen DeGeneres' powerful message on Facebook. It is too bad that such a tragedy was the inspiration, and that the gang members in the Bronx never heard this message or chose to ignore it. And it's too bad this message came far too late for Matthew Shepard.