House Passes Federal Hate Crimes Legislation

by: Autumn Sandeen

Thu Oct 08, 2009 at 17:50:45 PM EDT

From what I've been reading, it looks likely the bill will be passed by the Senate next week.

If you're looking for what the President is going to say at the HRC dinner this weekend, my guess that one item that's going to be included in his speech is how he's looking forward to signing federal hate crime protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people sometime in the next two weeks.

Below are excepts from the press releases of Representatives Barney Frank and Tammy Baldwin. Select the images of the press releases to read their entire statements in PDF format.

On a personal note, after covering the Angie Zapata Hate Crime Murder Trial last April, I can't help but believe this is further Justice For Angie.

From Rep. Barney Frank:

The US House of Representatives today voted in favor of legislation containing the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which extends the definition of violent hate crimes to include gender, sexual orientation, gender identity and disability.

The original bill, H.R. 1913, passed the House on April 29th of this year, mostly along partisan lines.  The Senate attached its version of the Hate Crimes Bill to the Defense Authorization Act of 2010 (H.R. 2467), and after the bill passed the Senate, the language was maintained by the House/Senate Conference Committee.  Today, the Defense Authorization Act conference report passed on a vote that broke largely on partisan lines, 281 to 146.

In response to Republican House members who argued against the Hate Crimes provision, Congressman Frank stated earlier this week:

"It is clear that there is an animus against those of us who are gay or lesbian, against people who are transgender, on the part of many in the House, and they are reflecting a strong political sentiment in the country. They are entitled to it. I do not lament the loss of their friendship and affection; I can live without it. But it should not lead them to deny protection to vulnerable people, and we are talking here about crimes, not just murder, but about assault and destruction of property which are too often ignored."

Under current law, the Hate Crimes protections cover violent crimes perpetrated because of the victim's race, color, religion or national origin. The new legislation would include gender, sexual orientation, gender identity and disability, and would effectively cover transgender individuals.  

The Hate Crimes provision in the legislation passed today will allow the federal government to assist local and state law enforcement authorities, which prosecute the overwhelming majority of Hate Crimes cases.  It permits the federal government to share resources and enforcement tools.  It also authorizes the U.S. Attorney General to make grants to state and local law enforcement authorities which have incurred especially high expenses in connection with the investigation and prosecution of these crimes.

From Rep. Tammy Baldwin:

Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin today lauded the final passage of the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Act, also known as the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009.  The measure was included in the conference report to the Fiscal Year 2010 National Defense Authorization Act (H.R. 2647) that passed the House today.  The Senate is expected to vote on the measure early next week, and it will then go to the President for his signature.

"This measure is long overdue and I am pleased that Congress has voted to do what's right," said Congresswoman Baldwin.  "Martin Luther King, Jr. often said that 'the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.'  We see that beautifully illustrated here today," said Baldwin who is Co-Chair of the Congressional LGBT Equality Caucus and a longtime champion of this legislation.

The Hate Crimes provision included in the conference report adds the categories of gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, and disability to existing protections for bias crimes based on race, color, religion, and national origin.  "We passed this bill not to provide a group of people with special protections, but because of a history of heinous, violent crimes intended to terrorize individuals who share these characteristics," Baldwin explained...