AG Holder Calls Hate-Crimes Law “Great”
October 29, 2009 by Gay Agenda News Team · Leave a Comment
Attorney General Eric Holder called the signing of expanded hate-crimes legislation into law “the next great civil rights bill,” but declined to weigh in on a gay-rights ballot measure up for a vote next week in Maine.
“We have, after 10 to 12 years, finally come to recognize that the federal law should apply, as the president said, to all Americans,” Holder said after Obama signed into law new protections for victims of gender- and sexual orientation-based hate crimes. “This is a great tool for the Justice Department, and I think significantly improves the quality of life for people with disabilities, for women and for gay and lesbian Americans. This is a great. great day. And it was too long coming.”
Holder said the new law will allow the Justice Department to assist state and local prosecutors, who investigate most hate crimes, and could allow DOJ to prosecute offenders in cases where local officials choose not to.
President Obama Signs Bill Including Hate Crimes
October 28, 2009 by James Hipps · 4 Comments
In case you didn’t get to see it live, here’s a clip of President Obama signing the 2010 National Defense Authorization Bill, which includes extending hate crimes to cover crimes against LGBT Americans. Judy Shepard, the mother of Matthew Shepard, murdered for being gay in 1998, was in attendance. Thank you President Obama! This is truly a step forward for all LGBT Americans and our families.
Parents of Gays & Lesbians Demonstrate at Bill Signing
October 27, 2009 by Gay Agenda News Team · Leave a Comment
Parents of gays and lesbians, teachers and activists carrying photos of hate crime murder victims including Harvey Milk and Matthew Shepard will demonstrate in front of the White House on Wednesday, October 28 from noon to 2 p.m. prior to the President signing the Matthew Shepard Amendment. The amendment adds gender, sexual orientation, gender identity and disabilities to the federal hate crimes act.
The demonstration is organized by Equality Forum, a national and international GLBT civil rights organization with an educational focus.
According to the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs, there were 29 hate crime murders of gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender (GLBT) Americans among the 2,424 GLBT hate crimes in 2008. Since 1998, when Matthew Shepard was murdered, there have been over 16,000 hate crime victims, on average, about 1,450 GLBT hate crimes per year.
“Homophobia has fueled carnage since Matthew Shepard’s murder 11 years ago,” stated Malcolm Lazin, Executive Director of Equality Forum. “The Matthew Shepard Amendment is the beginning not the end in recognizing, addressing and eliminating homophobia in our schools, workplaces, neighborhoods and culture.”
“We applaud those in Congress and President Obama who support the Matthew Shepard Amendment,” stated Susan Wheeler of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, the mother of James Wheeler. “My son took his life after being repeatedly harassed in high school. He was surrounded in the locker room and urinated on. Jim never recovered from that humiliation.”
“We demonstrate as a reminder of the over 16,000 hate crime victims since Matthew’s brutal murder,” stated Michael and Barbara Klinman of Havertown, Pennsylvania, who are parents of a gay son. “These crimes are intended to intimidate the GLBT community and their ferocity impacts the soul of America.”
“As we carry the photos of murder victims of GLBT hate crimes, we stand-in for those whose lives have been silenced,” stated Carol Watchler, GLSEN Central New Jersey Co-Chair. “We demonstrate because we are concerned about the safety of youth. We want to ensure that gay and lesbian children are not hate crime statistics and can live without fear of homophobic violence.”
Equality Forum produced “Jim in Bold,” an award-winning documentary film about the impact of homophobia on GLBTQ youth. The annual Equality Forum includes the James Wheeler National Youth Panel. Judy Shepard, mother of Matthew Shepard, has been featured at the annual Equality Forum.
President Obama Keeping Promises of Change
October 27, 2009 by James Hipps · 12 Comments
One of those big changes President Obama and the Democrats promised during the election is about to become law.
Last week the Senate gave final passage to the bill authorizing spending for the Department of Defense, which included a provision creating a hate crimes designation.
The Obama administration has announced the President will sign the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Act into law at the White House on Wednesday of this week. The bill now includes LGBT in the federal definition of a hate crime, one thing he promised to do if elected during his campaign for the presidency.
At the signing, the President will also host a reception for gay rights groups and civil rights leaders commemorating the brutal murder of Matthew Shepard in 1998. Shepard’s mother Judy, a tireless advocate for the legislation, along with his surviving brother Logan will be in attendance at the signing ceremony.
Last week, the president also kept another campaign promise by signing a bill into law that authorizes advanced funding for the Veterans Administration.
As I’ve said to those critics, change takes time, but it’s sometimes worth the wait.
Republicans Voting to Protect Hate-Crimes
October 26, 2009 by James Hipps · Leave a Comment
It’s getting easier these days to take stabs at the right wing lunatics in this country, mainly because of their blatant stupidity, but also because of their hell-bent efforts in denying equality to all Americans.
Somewhere along the line, some of the far right Republicans in the country have adopted the thought that rights and equality are things that only a segment of the population deserve and they will go to great lengths to do their part to maintain inequality.
There’s a great post on Cafe Sentido that points out the ironic nature of, and just how far some of those far right Repubs are willing to go to insure the LGBT community doesn’t take away their right to beat the hell out of someone for being gay. Below is an excerpt:
The Republican party has adopted one of the most mind-bending political stances seen in recent times: after decades of defaming every Democrat, every liberal of any kind, progressive politics in general and anyone who opposes their party’s line, as “weak on defense” or “soft on crime”, often using the most convoluted rhetoric to make the defamatory claims, 28 Republican senators and 131 Republican House members have now voted to cut off funding for the US military in order to give special rights to violent criminals driven by hate.
These 159 Republicans in Congress voted against the Defense funding authorization bill, because it included the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which expands federal hate crimes law to punish attacks motivated by bias against gays. Some Republicans said their opposition was not to passing a hate crimes extension but to attaching it to a Defense spending bill. But how many of those Congresmen objected to procedural abuses when the Republican majority called midnight votes and neglected to even inform Democrats?
Astonishingly, a significant number of Republicans actually used extremist rhetoric to express what seems to be sympathy for bigots and murderers. Todd Tiahrt, a Republican representative from Kansas who opposed the hate crimes bill said it was “a cowardly move by far left Democrats to use this bill as a vehicle for their radical views.” Radical views? Rep. Tiahrt is actually making the argument that it is a “radical view” that in the United States a person should not be brutally murdered due to his or her sexual orientation.
I find it somewhat amazing how some are so afraid of the LGBT community, they will go to any length to insure we (members of the LGBT) don’t gain protections by law. I find this amazingly similar this is to how some used to feel about protections for persons of color. I’m just sayin….
