by Mark Tooley

About the author: Mark Tooley is a researcher at the Institute on Religion and Democracy in Washington, D.C.

Americans at 350 different locations participated in "Stop the Hate Day" on October 7, 1999, the first anniversary of the murder of the young homosexual, Matthew Shepard, who was killed in Laramie, Wyoming. Organized by the left- leaning Interfaith Alliance and Fellowship of Reconciliation, the protest was supposedly aimed at simple hate and violence.

Over 100 organizations endorsed "Stop the Hate," but oddly, none of them was conservative. Indeed, none of them could really be called anything but left of center. Many could even be called far left. Has America really become so poisonous that only left-wing groups can summon the courage to condemn criminal assaults aimed at minority groups"

Stigmatizing the Conservative

In truth, "Stop...