On April 29, the United States House of Representatives passed, by a vote of 249 to 175, the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act (H.R. 1913), which adds sexual orientation and gender identity to the criteria-race, color, religion, national origin, gender and disability-that define a violent crime as hate-motivated. Hate crimes legislation must also pass in the U.S. Senate to become law.
The bill is also known as the Matthew Shepard Act, to honor the memory of the young, gay, University of Wyoming student, less than 22 years old, brutally murdered in Laramie, by Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson in October 1998. With her Erase Hate campaign, Judy Shepard, Matthew's mother, has vigorously campaigned for such legislation during the last decade, something Sherri Rase wrote about in these pages in March in her article "Judy and Matthew Shepard Still Have Power to Inspire. (See also www.matthewshepard.org).
Local organizations hailed the new development in Washington, D.C., and urged members to contact their Senators to "urge [them] to act upon and pass this legislation quickly," as Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund (TLDEF, www.transgenderlegal.org) Executive Director Michael Silverman put it.
TLDEF's statement, noting the frequency with which transgender individuals are targets of hate crimes, cited a Colorado jury's conviction of Allen Andrade, on April 22, for a hate crime and first-degree murder for fatally beating 18-year-old transsexual Angie (né Justin) Zapata, and the Onondaga County, New York District Attorney's pursuit of a hate crimes conviction for Dwight DeLee for shooting and killing 22-year-old Lateisha "Teish" Green in Syracuse last November. Success in the latter case would mean the state's first-ever transgender-related hate crime conviction. "Transgender people deserve the same protection from hate crimes under federal law that everyone else receives, and we thank all the House members who voted for this bill," Silverman declared.
Rea Carey, Executive Director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Action Fund (www.theTaskForce.org), said, on April 29, "Our country is on the cusp of recognizing and responding to the reality of hate violence against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. But the fight isn't over. Yesterday, a hate crimes bill was introduced in the Senate ... We'll be asking you and everyone you know to send e-mails, make calls and keep the pressure on our Senators to do the right thing. If hate crimes legislation passes in the Senate, then it's on to President Obama for his signature."
NOW (the National Organization for Women) New York State (www.nownys.org) warned that "ultra conservatives [are] distributing propaganda that is untrue. They are saying that sexual orientation means criminal acts like bestiality and necrophilia. They are claiming that the bill is protecting those behaviors. We know that could not be farther from the truth" and pointed out that, "the Matthew Shepard Act targets only violent acts-not speech. It does not tell any clergy member what he or she can or can't preach."
"Hate crimes against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people are on the rise. One out of every six hate crimes is because of the victim's sexual orientation ... Hate crimes are perpetrated against numerous individuals. They are intended to create an atmosphere of fear and terrorize entire communities."
