WASHINGTON D.C. — The United States House of Representatives, today, gave 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 (281-146) today. The Senate is expected to approve the measure early next week, and it will then go to the President who has indicated that he will sign the measure into law.
"This measure is long overdue and I am pleased that Congress has voted to do what’s right," said Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin (D, Wisconsin). "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.
The Matthew Shepard Act, named for the young gay man tortured and killed in a hate-motivated crime in 1998, gives state, local, and federal law enforcement authorities the necessary resources and tools to combat violent crimes based on prejudice and intended to terrorize an entire group or community.
—Staff
