http://www.advocate.com/Politics/Commentary/Oped_Shepards_Say_Obama_Will_Move_This_Country_Forward/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+AdvocatecomDailyNews+%28Advocate.com+Daily+News%29
The parents of Matthew Shepard reflect on what it’s meant that, two years ago today, the president signed a hate crimes bill that invokes the name of their son who was murdered.
No hate crime prevention laws existed nationally or in our state prior to his death, and though we were grieving, we knew our family’s story had to be told. We didn’t want a single family to have to look at the empty chair around the dinner table or at family holidays. You aren’t supposed to have to bury a child, and we wanted to make sure we did everything we could so that other parents didn’t have to. If we could help save just one family from the pain that we still experience, then silence was not an option.