Strangely, few are empowered. Everyone sees the problem and assumes that there is no way to prevent it from happening again. What happened to Mr. Shepard could have happened to anyone, anywhere, at anytime. He still deserved the right to live. Mr. Shepard was killed because he had a label placed on him by society.
Compassion knows no labels.
Now is the time for everyone to join together and mourn this sad event, and use that mourning to spur the feelings of power. Something needs to be done to keep this from happening again.