Senate Passes Hate Crimes Bill

[Omaha Steve]

Source: civilrights.org

Tyler Lewis

On September 27, the Senate passed by voice vote a bill that would expand federal hate crimes coverage to include sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, and disability.

The vote came after a successful vote (60-39) to stop debate and add the amendment to the Department of Defense bill.

"Today's Senate passage of the hate crimes bill is a huge victory for civil rights and the civil rights community," said Wade Henderson, president and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR).

The amendment, The Matthew Shepard Act (or the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act), will expand coverage to include gender, gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and individuals with disabilities. It also provide grants to state and local communities to combat violent crimes committed by juveniles, train law enforcement officers, or to assist in state and local investigations and prosecutions of bias motivated crimes.

Read more: http://www.civilrights.org/press_room/buzz_clips/civilrightsorg-stories/senate-passes-hate-crimes-bill.html

[Chovexani]

1. Awesome!

Too bad Chimpy'll veto it. :(

[Auggie]

4. It's an amendment to the Department of Defense bill

Sneaky Democrats!

[Chovexani]

5. !

Oh, well played! :woohoo:

[6000eliot]

2. I read that they dropped references to transgender from the bill.

[Chovexani]

3. Shameful but not surprising

Transfolk aren't even second class citizens in this country. :(

I hope that gets rectified but I'm not holding my breath.

[kansasblue]

6. agreed... even within the gay community there is some ignorance

on the subject.