![]() ![]() Supporters of the bill in Wyoming include the Anti-Defamation League, which has advocated for hate crime legislation through their "50 States Against Hate" campaign. Some advocates also include Indiana on the list of states without hate crime laws, calling a law passed in that state in 2019 "problematically broad." Last year, Georgia passed a hate crimes law following a push by advocates outraged over the murder of Ahmaud Arbery, a Black jogger gunned down by White men who pursued him through a coastal neighborhood. Pressure has been increasing on lawmakers in Wyoming and the two other states that remain without hate crime legislation - South Carolina and Arkansas, where bills have been introduced - especially after the Black Lives Matter movement galvanized a national conversation around systemic racism and civil rights. "I think Wyoming is at a decision point around what kind of state we want to be, what kind of reputation we want to have nationally and how we want to move into the future," Villnave said. Hate Crimes Prevention Act October 28, 2009. ![]() Then-president Barack Obama applauds the sisters of James Byrd, Jr., Betty Byrd Boatner, second from right, and Louvon Harris, second from left, and the parents of Matthew Shepard, Judy Shepard, center, and Dennis Shepard left, after Obama signed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Villnave said the statute would send a signal that the state welcomes all. Hannah Villnave, a Cheyenne minister and Wyoming Equality board member, said values of being a good neighbor are paramount in the conservative state, which is the least populous in the country and sometimes known as "a small town with big streets." Despite that, she said there's been a lack of urgency to pass a hate crimes statute and some in the LGBTQ community feel unsafe. In Wyoming, "neighboring is a verb," said Burlingame, executive director of the LGBTQ rights advocacy group Wyoming Equality. Sara Burlingame, a former Wyoming Democratic legislator who championed the hate crime bill before losing her seat in the November 2020 election, said she considers the lack of hate crime laws an "abdication of our values as Wyomingites." could have fixed that 20 years ago, but they chose not to." "That's how they talked about it - 'They murder gay kids there,'" said Shepard, who along with her husband Dennis Shepard advocates against hate through the Matthew Shepard Foundation.
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