The music community is expressing its outrage over the murder of University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard, who died on Monday after being brutally attacked and tied to a fence by two men who allegedly beat him because he was gay.

Speaking about the incident, R.E.M. frontman Michael Stipe said that homophobia is alive and well in America.

"I don't think there's been an acceptance of homosexuality or queerness on a mass scale in this country to start with," Stipe told MTV News via phone on Tuesday. "It's one thing when it's entertainment based, when it's Ellen or someone like myself, who's presenting, you know, a very different side to entertainment. If it's something that can be categorized by television, or music, or the arts, but in day to day, I would say the homophobia still exists." [28.8 RealVideo]

Meanwhile, singer and longtime activist Melissa Etheridge called the violent attack on Shepard a ghastly consequence of the change that must happen inside people's minds.

"Nothing in our history has ever come about, no change has ever come about without great resistance and violent resistance to it," Etheridge told MTV News on Tuesday. "And then our children's children look back and go, 'What was that? You mean they were lynching black men in trees? What were they talking about?' And my grandchildren will go, 'Oh my God, they tied up a man like a scarecrow and left him for dead because he was gay?' It will just seem so hideously unthinkable." [28.8 RealAudio]

Shepard's funeral will take place on Friday afternoon at St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Casper, Wyoming, and on Monday night, 800 people attended an outdoor service for Shepard at the University of Wyoming.

GLAAD and the Human Rights Campaign are planning a candlelight vigil on the steps of the U.S. Capitol at 7 p.m. on Wednesday to call on Congress to pass a hate crime bill.

Across the country, gay and lesbian organizations are concerned about a serious upsurge in hate crimes and gay-bias attacks. On Saturday at Colorado State University, not far from the Poudre Valley Hospital where Shepard lay dying, a homecoming parade float displayed a scarecrow wearing an anti-gay message. In New York's Greenwich Village, six gay-bashing incidents have occurred in the last month.

Jeffrey Montgomery, executive director of the Triangle Foundation in Detroit, met with Michigan State students, and believes that "college campuses are dangerous places for gay people."

Shepard's parents have set up a fund in their son's name. Donations can be sent to:

Fund for the Benefit of Matthew Shepard C/O First National Bank P.O. Box 578 Fort Collins, CO 80522 Account number 1926083

Notes of condolence can also be e-mailed to mshepard@libra.pvh.org