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Monday, 25 August 2008 10:54
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 Remembering the
Legacy of Matthew Shepard
Ten years ago this year, the nation was ravaged by a series of bias and hate crimes, including the tragic murder of a University of Wyoming student named Matthew Shepard. Today his legacy and story lives on. Stop The Hate ( www.stophate.org), an educational initiative of Campus Pride, dedicates 2008-09 to the memory of all victims of hate and has partnered with the Matthew Shepard Foundation to host two national trainings this Fall and Spring to prevent bias and hate crimes on college campuses. More information online at www.stophate.org under Events.
 “We are very pleased to be intimately involved in the Stop the Hate program,” said Judy Shepard, mother of Matthew Shepard and the Executive Director of the Matthew Shepard Foundation. “The curriculum is challenging, engaging, and gives educators the tools they need to make a real difference on our college campuses. In the 10 years since Matt's murder, programs like Stop The Hate have made our college campuses safer places to learn and work.”
According to the 2006 hate crime statistics complied by the FBI, school campuses continue to be the third most common place for hate crimes to occur. Stop The Hate and the Matthew Shepard Foundation recount that between June of 1998 and July of 1999, four of the most notorious hate crimes in our recent history occurred in the United States, including the murder of James Byrd Jr. by white supremacists, the murder of Matthew Shepard by anti-gay men, the Columbine High School murders, and the murders of Ricky Byrdsong and Won-Joon Yoon. In the ten years since this tragic period, others have become victims of hate and have been murdered in hate crimes, including Gwen Araujo, Lawrence King, Angie Zapata, Satendar Singh, and Jeremy Waggoner, just to name a few.
“It is clear that hate is alive in this country. Bias motivated violence is on the rise and Stop The Hate does not want to forget our past victims and their loved ones as we look toward creating a future of tolerance and acceptance,” said Greg Miraglia, Stop The Hate National Coordinator. “As we mark this 10 year observance, Stop The Hate is working even harder to give colleges the necessary tools to not only respond to bias and hate when it happens – but to prevent it, to stop it.”
Since its creation in 2001, Stop The Hate has trained over 1000 students, faculty and campus officials on college campuses across the country with the 250+ page training manual and bias prevention curriculum. Stop The Hate is currently accepting invitations to bring the Stop The Hate program to college campuses around the United States. There are a limited number of presentation dates available. To learn more about these two trainings or how you can host a Stop The Hate program on your campus, visit our website at www.stophate.org or contact the National Program Coordinator Greg Miraglia at 707-253-3035 or by email at
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