Last week, Matthew Shepard was being mercilessly beaten by two men who may have pretended to be gay in order to lure him out in the open.

They shouted anti-gay epithets at him while they burned him.

They pistol-whipped him because he embarrassed them by flirting.

They left him for dead in the near-freezing Wyoming night because he was gay.

Though the alleged assailants, Russell Arthur Henderson and Aaron McKinney, have yet to get all of the details of their story straightened out, the father of McKinney has stated (according to Reuters) that though there was no excuse for what his son did that it still “wasn’t meant to be a hate crime.”

What exactly was it meant to be?

Exactly how should we reference this ungodly act of animal violence?

The fact that the assailants stole the wallet and shoes of Shepard as the final act in this violent torture session before leaving him to die in no way mitigates the extent to which it most certainly was an act of pure, unadulterated hatred.

It was not simply a robbery where the victim happened to be a gay man in the wrong place at the wrong time.

“Had this been a heterosexual these two boys decided to take out and rob, this never would have made the national news. Now my son is guilty before he’s even had a trial,” Bill McKinney said.

These violent men are not victims of political correctness gone mad.

This would not have happened to Matthew Shepard if he had been a heterosexual.

It seems highly unlikely and even ludicrous to assert that these men would have gone to this trouble while robbing a straight man.

It is not a coincidence when two men shout anti-gay epithets at a gay man they are torturing.

This is the most shocking example of a hate crime.

What could possibly be going through the primitive mind of a bigot while committing such an act?

How does a man’s sexual preference affect you to such an extent that you could leave him for dead in the freezing cold?

Matthew Shepard may die from his injuries while vigils and demonstrations are held in his name.

We hope that you will take a moment today to send him your prayers.