As night fell at the vigil for Matthew Shepard outside the Capitol last Wednesday, the stony resistance of many Republicans to federal hate-crime legislation melted amid rosy predictions it would be revived, and passed, when Congress resumes in January. The G.O.P. has thrown its right-wing base enough Grade A red meat to satisfy the most ravenous appetite. In fighting to limit AIDS funding and battling gay adoption and marriage, some Republicans have characterized gays as less deserving of basic rights and as a sinful, diseased threat to the American way of life. There was, of course, Senator Trent Lott's comparison of homosexuality to kleptomania. With plans to put the ads on TV just before the election, an entire wing of the party looks poised to fan hatred of gays just to get out the vote.
Words are one thing.
Sticks and stones are another. Although no one thinks that Wyoming, which has quashed hate-crime bills three times, won't fully prosecute Shepard's killers, gay lobbyists have no doubt that there are cases in which the police look the other way, prosecutors don't bring charges and juries don't convict. Take the case of Jonathan Schmitz, who killed a gay man who said during the taping of the Jenny Jones Show that he had a crush on Schmitz. Schmitz was convicted of second-degree murder. Forty states have hate-crime laws, and studies show that added measures can make a difference.