I hate to go old school on you, but let’s be careful out there.

1. I understand the death of Michael Jackson is big news, but worthy enough to push Iran under the fold?

2. My neighbor is mad because the Mets were swept by  the Yankees. Hopefully marching in Pride as part of the Gotham Knights Rugby Club will diminish his pique.

3. This story shows why we need to keep groups like AVP well funded. A hate crime beating during Pride? Imagine if this guy didn’t have friends in the media?

4. Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing is 20 years old? Roll call baby!

5. This song is ridiculous.

6. This one sublime.

7. Poor Gov. David Paterson. He was hoping he could be the grand marshal of the  city’s Pride parade with a marriage bill signed and delivered. State senators had a   different agenda. Problem is no one knows what their agenda is.

8. When I was younger, I loved parades; especially the one held on July Fourth in Piermont, New York (lived there the first 10 years of my life). Despise them now.

9. Last thought about Piermont: the town’s public library back in the day was the type of place Alberto Manguel would go crazy over.

10. If there is no tape, sex scandals bore. But add VHS acting and they are worthy of water cooler talk.

One of them is Wyoming.

Wyoming, where 10 years ago, Matthew Shepard was robbed, pistol-whipped, tortured, tied to a fence and left to die.

Wyoming.

Though it’s not like the other 45 states WITH hate crime laws are perfect. Only 32 of them cover sexual orientation. Only 11 cover gender identity.

Last month, the House passed a hate crimes bill by a wide margin – a bill which would protect gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgenders in all states, including ones like Wyoming that have no hate crime bills of their own. But the Senate is more complicated.

Currently, the sponsors of the bill are looking to attach it to a bill that is likely to sail through the Senate, because it is not strong enough to survive on its own. Hopefully, the President’s support – he said it would “enhance civil rights protections, while also protecting our freedom of speech and association”  – will help facilitate this process.

But even if it does pass, it’s not enough.

Last night, at a discussion hosted by Turner’s employee affinity group, Matthew’s mother Judy Shepard expressed dismay and frustration that 10 years after his son’s death, little progress had been made.

“I never thought I’d still be doing this 10 years later,” she said, her voice quiet but firm.

She said that prosecution is only one piece of the puzzle –  we also need to focus on prevention.

Prevention of violence means education. It means school anti-bullying laws. It means explaining to kids that saying “that’s so gay” is not a neutral term but a loaded one inspiring anxiety in gay and lesbian classmates. It means trying to eliminate the culture of hate where it grows – in families, in churches, in schools.

It is exactly this education piece that our opponents are worried about.

Anti-gay legislators – people like Rep. Virginia Foxx, who called Matthew Shepard’s death a “hoax” in front of his mother, before apologizing – are worried that we will educate people into understanding that gay, lesbian and transgender people are perfectly normal. They worry that their children and grandchildren will grow up in a world where no one shudders at the sight of two men holding hands, or two women pledging commitment to each other in white gowns.

They worry that it will be SO normal, that perhaps one of their daughters will kiss another girl and think nothing of it; perhaps one of their sons will fall in love with another man.

They worry that their values will no longer be the country’s values.

And they are right to worry, of course. The acceptance of gay rights IS generational. The younger you are, the more likely you are to be growing up with the idea that gay is A-OK.

Even so, we are far from a world – or a country- which practices non-violence toward our community. In the past week, here in Manhattan, four different people were attacked in what seem to be anti-gay crimes. Attacked in Chelsea, the center of the gay community, in one of the most liberal cities in the world.

We are not yet safe, no matter where we live.

Sharon Staple, executive director of New York’s Gay & Lesbian Anti Violence Project, says we will know we have our full civil rights when we can walk down any street in this country, in any city, holding our partner’s hand and not being afraid.

In New York or in Wyoming, that day still seems very far away.