The US ambassador-designate to Ireland, Mr Mike Sullivan, has joined President Clinton and other political leaders in condemning the horrific attack on a gay student in Wyoming which has left him near death.
Mr Matthew Shepard (21) a student at the University of Wyoming, was lured from a bar in Laramie after attending a meeting of the gay student association last week. He was driven to a remote area, tied to a fence in a crucifixion fashion and beaten savagely on the head with the butt of a handgun. He was found the following day by a cyclist, who thought at first he was a scarecrow.
Mr Shepard is in a coma; his condition is reported to be deteriorating as a result of his severe head injuries and damaged brain stem. What were first reported as burn injuries on his body are now said to be welt marks.
Two men, Mr Russell Henderson (21), and Mr Aaron McKinney (22), have been charged with attempted first degree murder, kidnapping and robbery. Their girlfriends have been charged with being accessories. Police say that the men, pretending to be gay, lured Mr Shepard from the bar and after the attack made anti-homosexual comments to the women.
President Clinton, condemning the "horrifying" attack as another example of "hate crimes", compared it with the "vicious murder of James Byrd last June in Jasper, Texas". Mr Byrd, who was African-American, was dragged to his death behind a pickup-truck. Three white men have been charged with his murder, which is believed to have racial undertones.
Mr Sullivan, who is awaiting Senate confirmation as ambassador and who is a former governor of Wyoming, said in a statement that "You hate to look for tragedy to generate something good, but often it does. It's such a tragic, incomprehensible act of violence, it causes people to examine why."
Gay rights activists say that the attack shows the need for tougher hate-crime legislation and reveals a growing national level of intolerance. Wyoming is one of the few states not to have such legislation, encompassing victimisation because of sexual orientation.
Ms Kim Mills of the Human Rights Campaign, the largest national gay and lesbian group, said: "There is a climate right now of intolerance that we believe is being fostered by religious political organisations" including the Christian Coalition.