On Monday, Matthew Shepard died because he was gay.

Yes, he was robbed as well, but were he straight he would most likely be alive today.

He was the victim of a hate crime in a state that offered him no protection from such activity.

President Clinton has used the incident to call for long overdue Federal hate-crime legislation. He probably has little chance of getting it right now, with his impeachment hearings set to dominate the remainder of this Congress.

But the same groups that would like to bring down the President over the Lewinsky affair are the ones that oppose hate-crime legislation on the grounds that it gives special treatment to minorities.

Special treatment how, exactly? The Constitution is supposed to protect us in whatever lifestyle choices we chose to make. Attacking someone for the way that they lived their life without interfering with yours is called violating their civil rights.

By not denouncing what happened last week in Wyoming, and the associated actions by a fraternity at Colorado State, and the hateful actions that occur every day in America, we send the message that such behavior is tolerable.

This behavior is not tolerable. There is no difference between attacking a gay man because he is gay, and denying a black man the right to vote because he is black. Both are an affront to everything that America stands for.

Innocent blood will continue to be shed if anti-hate-crime laws are not passed. Those who refuse to condemn acts of hatred, and pass laws against those acts, are responsible. By not making this behavior unacceptable, we send the message that it is okay to commit a crime of bias in America. As long as we send that message, these crimes will continue.