Senate Passes Matthew Shepard Act
It’s a good day in Washington, where the Senate just passed the Matthew Shepard Act. That act allows state authorities to use federal resources to investigate hate crimes. It also offers stricter punishments for anti-gay attackers. From Joe.My.God:
By a 60-39 vote, the Senate just passed Matthew Shepard Act. Sixty votes were required for cloture. Happy day! I don’t know who the missing voter is yet.Now we’ll see if the president will veto the defense appropriations bill to which the MSA is attached, as he has threatened to do.
Maybe Bush will forget…
John McCain was the only one not to vote on this.
Maybe Bush won’t veto the bill if they take out the gender identity language.
Excellent news because the Matthew Sheppard Act is urgently needed despite its weaknesses; the penalties aren’t harsh enough to deter hate crimes and they don’t routinely include the politicians and religious fanatics who incite violence.
The urgency is obvious because the last few weeks have seen a national upturn in violence against gays and lesbians identical to those that played out in 2000 and 2004.
The Republicans and the christian bigots are already hatemongering and we still have a year to go. The Democrats response, slicker and quieter but no less damaging, denies our right to marriage and full equality.
The combination of the three makes us, in the eyes of thugs and bigots, second class citizens. Wherever groups are made unequal by force of law,
Jews in Nazi Germany, Africans in Apartheid South Africa, Palestinians in Apartheid Israel they’re in jeopardy. The upsurge in beatings andmurders means we’re in for rough times again.
The Matthew Sheppard Act couldn’t come at a better time. It weaknesses like penalties that aren’t harsh enough to deter hate crimes and it doesn’t automatically include the politicians and religious fanatics who incite violence when it occurs.
The urgency is obvious because the last few weeks have seen a national upturn in violenceidentical to those that played out in 2000 and 2004. The Republicans and the christian bigots are already hatemongering and we still have a year to go. The Democrats response, slicker and quieter but no less damaging, denies our right to marriage and full equality.
The combination of the three makes us, in the eyes of thugs and bigots, second class citizens. Wherever groups are made unequal by force of law, they’re in jeopardy and the upsurge in beatings and even murders means we’re in for rough times again.
If it makes it past the Bigot in Chief in the White House we’ll have to press hard for its implementation
Bush vowed to veto this bill. Now, it just looks bad and that there is desperation because it was attatched to the War Funding Bill. Makes the gays look weak and it will only continue to piss people off that the Democrats would try to “sneak” this by when funding is so desperately needed to keep the troops safe and get them home safely. I don’t think Bush will sign, as this was a stand alone bill in Congress and it passed. Now what?