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President Signs Long-Awaited Hate Crimes Bill Into Law by Steve Weinstein
EDGE Editor-In-ChiefWednesday Oct 28, 2009
After a decade of debate, persistent advocacy and 14 separate congressional floor votes, President Barack Obama today signed into law the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act in a White House ceremony attended by the Shepard and Byrd families.
The bill was attached to a massive defense authorization bill, which, as CNN noted, made for an interesting White House ceremony attended by prominent gay rights advocates and Pentagon officials. The ceremony, which was televised live, took place on Wednesday, Oct. 28, in the East Room.
The president emphasized the military procurement. He claimed the bill would cut wasteful weapons projects that a few lawmakers have spent years trying to kill, such as the F-22 fighter that critics have said is poorly suited for the battles in Iraq and Afghanistan. The bill also includes some weapons unpopular at the White House.
Focus on bill’s hate-crimes section
But the focus was also on the hate-crimes part of the bill. With Dennis and Judy Shepard looking on, the president signed a bill that critics have been maintaining would outlaw anything deemed "hate speech." They fear that any decrying of the "homosexual lifestyle" would be punishable by law--a fear, gay advocates counter, is ridiculous on its face.
The new law allows federal authorities to pursue charges in violent crimes motivated by the victim’s actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender, gender identity and disability, in cases where local authorities cannot or will not secure appropriate convictions. It also opens up federal aid to local law enforcement for training, prevention and investigation and improves record keeping in such cases.
For the Shepards, who became national figures after their son was murdered outside of Laramie, Wyo., the bill became a personal crusade. "When Dennis and I started calling 10 years ago for federal action to prevent and properly prosecute hate crimes against gay, lesbian and transgendered Americans, we never imagined it would take this long," said Judy Shepard, Matthew’s mother and the president of the Matthew Shepard Foundation Board of Directors.
"The legislation went through so many versions and so many votes that we had to constantly keep our hopes in check to keep from getting discouraged," she continued. "But with President Obama’s support and the continually growing bipartisan majorities in the House and Senate lining up behind the bill this year, it became clear that 2009 was the year it would finally happen."
Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese, in a statement, singled out recently deceased Massachusetts U.S. Sen. Teddy Kennedy, who had long campaigned for this law. "Today’s signing of the first major piece of civil rights legislation to protect LGBT Americans represents a historic milestone in the inevitable march towards equality," Solmonese said. The law finally provides local police and sheriffs’ departments the full resources of the Justice Department, he added.
Sen. Ted Kennedy’s widow told reporters Wednesday her husband would be pleased by the enactment of a new law strengthening and broadening protections against hate-crimes.
For her part, when asked at the White House signing ceremony what the hate-crimes law would mean to the late senator, Vicky Kennedy, the late senator’s widow, told reporters: "I imagine that he’s smiling."
Many, however, pointed out the irony of co-signing a gay rights measure with a Defense appropriation, since the military’s banning of openly gay servicepeople has become a rallying cry.
"You had advocates for the gay rights community with the military brass," said a CNN reporter. The president can end "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell" with an executive order, gay groups maintain. Pentagon officials say they’re studying the matter.
But gay groups say that there have been enough studies. In a time when the nation is fighting two wars and personnel are stretched to the breaking point, it is unreasonable to be excluding qualified people, they add.
EDGE Editor-in-Chief Steve Weinstein has been a regular correspondent for the International Herald Tribune, the Advocate, the Village Voice and Out. He has been covering the AIDS crisis since the early ’80s, when he began his career. He is the author of "The Q Guide to Fire Island" (Alyson, 2007).
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