According to the reports, Shepard was beaten and left for dead by two men who accused Shepard of hitting on them. This horrifying incident has resulted in a new wave of calls for new and tougher hate-crime laws. I definitely support the strongest penalty possible for such a crime. We have no way to prove if Shepard really did make an advance toward his killers, but that really makes no difference.
Nobody deserves to die for expressing interest in the wrong person.
Nobody needed to get so offended by an advance considered inappropriate that it justified murder. The problem lies not within the punishment called for the crime, but in the definition of the type of crime. I don't believe that any violent crime is ever committed out of love for the victim. Matthew Shepard is just as dead as a straight man would have been if he had been beaten and left in the cold field. A rape survivor loses her sense of security and ability to go about her business without fear whether she is straight or lesbian.