Standing Watch

The Senate passed The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr Hate Crimes Prevention Act last Thursday on a 68 to 29 vote. The bill extends the definition of federal hate crimes to include attacks motivated by sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, and disability. The bill passed in the House on October 8 with a vote of 281 to 146.

The bill is named for two men who were slain in alleged hate crimes in 1998. Matthew Shepard, a gay university student, was kidnapped, robbed, beaten, and crucified on a fence in Laramie, Wyoming, and James Byrd, Jr.,an African-American man, was dragged to death behind a vehicle driven by white supremacists in Texas.

Current federal hate crimes law only covers attacks motivated by race, color, national origin or religion. The new bill, when signed by President Obama, adds sexuality and gender identity, as well as protects military personnel from attacks arising from bias against the military. The new bill also removes the requirement that federal investigation and prosecution could only take place if the attack took place while participating or attempting to participate in a federally protected activity, such as voting or going to school.

Attorney General Eric Holder said nearly 80,000 hate crime incidents have been reported to the FBI since he first testified before Congress in support of a hate crimes bill 11 years ago. “It has been one of my highest personal priorities to ensure that this legislation finally becomes law,” he said. The FBI says more than half of reported hate crimes are motivated by racial bias. Next most frequent are crimes based on religious bias, at around 18 percent, and sexual orientation, at 16 percent. There are no federal statistics on crimes motivated by gender identity, though the new bill will now require the FBI to gather such statistics. Current estimates place violent crimes based upon gender-variance at roughly 16 times the national average, and the highest of any demographic group.

The legislation does not allow for federal hate crimes charges against those who incite such violence, but instead limits investigations and prosecutions to actual physical attacks (the attackers themselves). The legislation also limits federal authority to jurisdictions who are either unable or unwilling to prosecute bias-based violent crimes. 45 states currently have hate crimes laws to varying degrees.

The bill, which was 11 years in the making, was finally passed after numerous attempts, by attaching it to the Defense Appropriations spending bill. This was necessary, according to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), to block a projected filibuster by the GOP and “blue dog” Democrats opposed to the legislation. The bill had previously passed in the House last spring, but failed in the Senate after President Obama threatened to veto it, because it was tied to increased funding for the F-22 Raptor fighter program (the very expensive futuristic fighter jet that falls apart if it gets wet).

My thanks to Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) and the late Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA) for their tireless battle on this bill since 2001, and to all the estimated 250,000 plus participants in the National Equality March in Washington, DC earlier this month, who spurred the Senate to finally act. Without them, this would not have happened.

The House version of the bill, H.R. 1592,can be found here, while the Senate version, S. 1105, can be found here. President Obama is expected to sign into law the legislation.

As someone else said on another site, one down, three to go. We still are waiting for the passage of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), as well as the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” and the “Defense of Marriage Act” (DADT and DOMA, respectively). The battle is won, but the war continues, until all are equal.