Hate+crime+law+passes+in+House

Hate crime law passes in House of Representatives By Christina Staff writer

On April 28th 2009, a bill was introduced to the House of Representatives to possibly change the hate crime law to include sexual orientation, gender identity (transgender), and disability of a person. The purpose of the hate crime law is to find a motive for an unlawful act upon someone else that has no other motive than hate and to punish that person more severely based on that person’s actions. On April 29th 2009, the bill was passed by the House of Representatives but still needs to be voted on by the Senate on an undetermined date at this time. According to Mr. Leri, Burrell High School government teacher, “Often times a person committing a crime has a motive a reason. It can be greed, anger, revenge, or any number of things. Hate crime laws provide for a special category of criminal offenses whose motive is just that-hate towards another person based only upon the victim’s race, gender, ethnicity, religion, or sexual orientation.” The hate crime law has never been changed since the bills first adoption in 1994. The hate crime was first introduced to stop crimes from occurring based on hate and to prevent groups like the Ku Klux Klan to stop attacking because of prejudices. Based on the growing number of attacks that kept occurring during that time, the hate crime law was introduced to stop them. So, the hate crime law would be changed because of evidence of reoccurring hateful attacks or just one horrifying specific attack upon certain people that were not included under this law. Leri commented, “As is true when most laws are changed it is a result of an incident that occurred. The incident in this case was the murder of Matthew Shepard in October of 1998. Mr. Shepard was a student at the University of Wyoming. During the trial of his killers it became apparent that he was targeted as a victim for the single fact that he was gay. In that Wyoming has no law which would prosecute based on violence due to a person’s sexual orientation, two bills have been introduced in Congress to address, at the Federal level, hate crimes based on sexual orientation: The Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act and the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009. Neither bill has passed the full Congress, so therefore are not yet a law.” With the continuation of our government recognizing gay rights, future gay rights laws might be changed by the House of Representatives as well as in Congress. A number of laws passed on the behalf of gays, lesbians, and transsexuals over the last several years. Leri added, “President Obama has called for the elimination of the military’s ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy so that gays and lesbians may serve openly in the United States military. There is good reason to believe that this trend will continue.” With further continuation of gay rights, there may eventually be no more restrictions at all. If the hate crime law passes then gays, lesbians, Tran gendered, and people with disabilities will be better protected by the United States which will help create a more equal country. media type="custom" key="4989627" include component="comments" page="Hate crime law passes in House" limit="10"