In October 1998, Matthew Shepard was beaten and killed in Wyoming by a group of men because of his sexual orientation.

Just last month, Billy Jack Gaither was killed in Alabama by two men because he was gay.

With at least three brutal hate crimes receiving national attention within the last year, it is evident hate groups and crimes are still explicit in the United States.

Pennsylvania legislators are considering extending hate crime protection to cover not just those who are subjected to crimes on the basis of their race, color, religion or national origin but also to those who are targeted because of their sexual orientation, disability, gender or ancestry.

State legislators have considered extending the protection for years, but fear that extending benefits to some based on their sexual orientation would serve to endorse that lifestyle. That hesitation has slowed the acceptance for the extension to several groups, and it is time that legislators see that this protection must be extended, especially with the number of new hate crime incidents coming to light around the country. People often have been unfairly discriminated against and targeted because of their sexual orientation, disability or other characteristics.

When crimes are motivated because of a person's characteristics, the crimes are much different than those motivated by the perpetrator's own greed or desire, such as thefts or robberies.

With a hate crime, such as those Byrd, Shepard and Gaither were victims of, a person is targeted because of something he or she is, which makes the crime that much more difficult to cope with.

In Pennsylvania, a state that has at least 27 active hate groups, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, it makes sense to extend benefits in order to deter the groups' activities and make the environment safer for those who have been targeted by these crimes in the past.