Judy Shepard spoke at a hate crime conference for law enforcement in Center City.
Two men tortured and killed her son, Matthew, in 1998, because he was gay.
While there has been much progress in the past 14 years, Shepard says hate crimes still go unreported because members of the gay community fear being "outed."
"Unless crimes are reported to more than just law enforcement, then they go into the list of statistics when there are no numbers, there is no problem," said Shepard.
Shepard's activism helped pass a national hate crimes prevention act in her son's name in 2008.
