Photo by: Slobodan Dimitrov

In shock and in anger, about 1,000 people assembled in West Hollywood Monday night for a candlelight vigil to remember Matthew Shepard, a gay University of Wyoming student who died several days after two men lured him out of a bar, then robbed and beat the 21-year-old, before lashing him to a ranch fence and smashing his skull with a .357 magnum. He was found 18 hours later by passing bicyclists and died Monday. The demonstrators called for federal hate-crime legislation and an end to intolerance. “The hate-mongering being spewed daily by right-wing religious groups and the politicians they control led us to this incident,” said Ged Kenslea of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation. “Hate speech leads to hate crimes.”

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