Oklahoma’s ridiculous state lawmakers are trying to exempt themselves from federal law, saying their state doesn’t need to adhere to the Matthew Shepard Act. States’ rights! So let’s meet 24-year-old Phillip Nelson, a college student who lives north of Tulsa, and says he was gay bashed while taking out the trash.

“[… T]hree men screamed ‘faggot’ and ‘You’re going to die!’ as they beat him while he took the trash out in his apartment complex late last month. Nelson’s assailants left him with cuts and bruises on his face and body. And he said they broke into his apartment a few days later, ransacked it and scrawled ‘fag’ across the wall. […] ‘I keep calling them [the police] and leaving voice mails but I never hear anything back,’ Nelson said. ‘No one ever returns my calls, which has me wondering if they’re kind of trying to let this thing die out and go away, or if they are going to do anything about it.'”

Oklahoma doesn’t cover sexual orientation within its own hate crimes laws.