Mark Steyn writes:
Deference to the bereaved – and no doubt a certain fear of the gay lobby – corrupted not only the prosecution but also the defense team, both of whom effectively accepted the narrative created by Frank Rich & Co thousands of miles from the scene of the crime.
Upscale urban liberals (if Mr Jimenez will forgive me descending to labels) decided to make the death of Matthew Shepard a “teachable moment”. Unfortunately, what they wanted to teach was completely false – a fairy tale about a populace of drooling hicks itching to gay-bash. Yet Shepard’s death and what led to it should have been a teachable moment.
Sixteen years ago, I think I was vaguely aware of meth addiction. Since then, I’ve seen it march ever closer to home – hollowing out (along with heroin) decrepit mill towns and rusting farming communities across my part of northern New Hampshire and Vermont. Matthew Shepard’s descent into that world led to his death, but look at it from Frank Rich’s point of view:
Rural meth heads are far too déclassé to ever gain any purchase on the progressive imagination. Meth is banal and sordid and irredeemably provincial, totally lacking in the glamor of sexual-identity politics. So Matthew Shepard died twice: first murdered, and then supplanted in his own life story and replaced by a de-sexed, detoxed tragic cipher.
