Matthew Shepard
“Everyone in this country deserves a chance to pursue the American dream free from intimidation and persecution,” said U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette, who is Vice Chair of the LGBT Equality Caucus and cosponsor of the measure. “Every hate crime is an attack on the liberty and equality valued by every American. This legislation will provide state and local law enforcement agencies with resources they need to investigate and prosecute hate crimes, while also protecting the exercise of free speech and religious expression provided under our Constitution.”
Matt Kailey, editor of Out Front Colorado said, "The passage of the Matthew Shepard Act in the House today brings us one step closer to full equality for GLBT people by recognizing that our lives are just as valuable as anyone else's. Adding sexual orientation and gender identity to the federal hate crimes statute does not create a special class of people or give GLBT people special recognition or special rights. What it does is recognize that preying on a GLBT person because of his or her GLBT status victimizes an entire community rather than just one person.
It also brings us closer to eliminating the ridiculous "trans panic" and "gay panic" defenses that have been used for too long as excuses to commit crimes of violence against GLBT people."
Comments
Finally, and it way past time! It is so good to see the Democratic Congress finally do the business the GOP failed to do.
FINALLY!!!!!!
It is absolutely despicable that this had so much hard-core-christian opposition. For a group that's always going on about how "good" they are, they have yet to show it.
This bill comes too late to help my grandmother. Returning home one night with her purse full of bingo winnings with at least three other ladies who had also won that night, she was singled out because she was the only white lady who lived in that particular unit of a housing project in the Dorchester section of Boston. The other ladies who were winners as well, were all black and walked the same route from the church hall to the housing project and made it home unmolested. She suffered a compound fracture of the wrist and was beaten severely. She was attacked on other occasions returning from bingo with less traumatic results while other ladies, mostly black were again left unmolested on their trips home. Now we have a president who has had his children baptized by an anti-Semite and a hater of people who are other than black (Reverend Wright) and we are told to have hope. We don’t need hope, we need to understand and identify people who thrive on hate and racism like our president’s advisors and ministers.
As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."
It is time for Congress to do what's right and ignore the bigots.
Sherri says the "job the GOP failed to do." The dumocrats have had a majority in Congress since the mid-terms in 2006.
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