Help pass hate crimes legislation once and for all!
May 6, 2009
A law protecting all of our citizens against senseless hate violence is long overdue. Two years ago, right-wing groups and George W. Bush’s veto threat blocked the Matthew Shepard Act, which would outlaw hate crimes based on both sexual orientation and gender identity. But now the bill is back.
The U.S. House of Representatives, last week, passed the bill (H.R. 1913) with the support of Representative Pomeroy (ND), but not Representative Peterson (MN-7). President Obama has stated publicly since his campaign began and recently as the sitting president that he will sign this Act when it reaches his desk. This piece of legislation amends current federal Hate Crimes legislation to include disability, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, and gender as protected classes for bias-motivated crimes. Essentially, allowing law enforcement agencies the ability to seek harsher punishments for bias-motivated crimes and provide additional resources to local, state, and fedearl law enforcement agencies to investigate potentially bias-motivated crimes. You can view the House voting record at: http://www.govtrack.us/congress/vote.xpd?vote=h2009-223.
The Bill now moves on to the Senate and we ask that you contact your Senators immediately urging them to support this important piece of legislation. The FBI’s latest Hate Crimes report shows a decline in the number of hate crimes over the past year….however there is an increase in crimes directed at straight, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals because of their actual or perceived sexual orientation and/or gender identity.
The opposition has been flooding Senator’s inboxes and phone lines and we need to write in our support to off-set our opponents. Please take five minutes to draft an e-mail in support to your Senator. It doesn’t have to be long or filled with details. Simply state why you want them to support this important piece of legislation. We know that increased resources and penalties decrease the number of bias-motivated crimes that occur.
For additional info, check out the Human Rights Campaign (http://www.hrc.org/issues/hate_crimes/5895.htm), National Gay & Lesbian Task Force (http://www.thetaskforce.org/issues/hate_crimes_main_page), National Center for Transgender Equality (http://www.nctequality.org/Issues/issues_hate_crimes.html), or the Leadership Council on Civil Rights (http://www.civilrights.org/hatecrimes/).
For Senator Byron Dorgan (ND): http://dorgan.senate.gov/contact/
For Senator Kent Conrad (ND): http://conrad.senate.gov/contact/
For Senator Amy Klobuchar (MN): http://klobuchar.senate.gov/contactamy.cfm
For Senator Al Franken/Norm Coleman: We will have to wait and see 
For all other Senators: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
Tell Congress we need the Matthew Shepard Act to help ensure safety and security for ALL people!
