Matthew Shepard Act passed in Senate!
Sen. Reid during a press conference on the LLEHCPA
The Matthew Shepard Act, a bill that adds sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, and disability, to the current hate crimes legislation, has been passed by the Senate. The bill, which was also passed by the House of Representative on April 23, 2009, is now on its way to President Barack Obama who will either pass the bill or veto it.
This bill, officially known as the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act, has been floating in and out of legislation since 1999 when it was first introduced to Congress. Former President Bill Clinton had pushed for the sexual orientation legislation, but it was never able to get through the House.
In 2001, the bill came back and added transgender to the measure. It failed to get passed in the House of Representatives and continued to fail again in 2004 and 2005. In 2007 the bill finally passed the House. As it was en route to the Senate, Former President George W. Bush issued a statement that he would veto the bill if it ever made it to his desk. He called it “unnecessary and constitutionally questionable.” The bill never made it President Bush’s desk, however; it was not passed in the Senate.
The Matthew Shepard Act has been met with strong opposition. Congresswoman Virginia Foxx, R-North Carolina, stated during debate that, “We know that young man [Shepard] was killed in the commitment of a robbery. It wasn't because he was gay... The bill was named for him, the hate-crimes bill was named for him, but it's really a hoax that continues to be used as an excuse for passing these bills." Foxx later recanted her statement by saying that it was “a poor choice of words” and that her comments didn’t convey what she really had meant to say.
Other groups are still in opposition to the bill, and have dubbed it the “Pedophile Protection Act” on the grounds that sexual orientation also extends to pedophiles, exhibitionists, and other types of sexual deviancies. Representative Steve King, R-Iowa, however, has stated that “the term 'sexual orientation' shall not include pedophilia”.
Representative Tammy Baldwin, D-Wisconsin, also noted that the term ‘sexual orientation’ is already defined by federal statute as applying to only heterosexuality and homosexuality.
Sources:
matthewshepard.com
articles.latimes.com
en.wikipedia.org
abclocal.go.com
wnd.com
mediamatters.org
