Matthew Shepard

* When I heard Monday morning that Matthew Shepard had died, a piece of me died with him. All I could think on the way to work was that this kid was someone’s son, someone’s brother, someone’s best friend . . . and he was left on a fence in Wyoming to die, unrecognizable and uncared for, because the state of Wyoming didn’t recognize him as a human being with rights.

Forget for a moment that Matthew was gay. Matthew was a human being. In this great country, the leader of the free world, we are still lynching and beating people for their differences. I served this country for four years in the Marine Corps, and I was raised to believe in this country and what it stands for. But now I see that like every other country, we too are capable of incomprehensible hate.

Matthew Shepard could have been my brother, my best friend and, by the way, he could have been me.

LISA GRAJEWSKI

Irvine

* The beating death of a gay college student in Wyoming is a tragedy for the boy, his family and for the nation, because the climate in this county exists where such a thing can occur.

Homophobia is institutionalized because our political leaders allow it to be accepted. When House Speaker Newt Gingrich expresses his feelings that homosexuals are sick, or when Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott expresses similar feelings, they paint pictures of homosexuals that are less than human, much the way the Nazis dehumanized the Jewish people before World War II. Their actions create a climate where such brutality can occur. These political leaders who attack and criticize people for having a sexual orientation not like their own must take their share of the blame and admit they have blood on their hands.

MICHAEL L. STEMPEL

West Hollywood