Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009 passes the House

Earlier today, the House of Representatives passed the Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009.

The Democratic-led U.S. House of Representatives Wednesday approved an expansion of federal "hate crime" laws -- an effort that former Republican President George W. Bush had opposed.

On a vote of 249-175, the House passed and sent to the Senate a bill backed by the new Democratic White House to broaden such laws by classifying as "hate crimes" those attacks based on a victim's sexual orientation, gender identity or mental or physical disability.

The bill would lift a requirement that a victim had to be attacked while engaged in a federally protected activity, like attending school, for it to be a federal hate crime.

Former Republican President George W. Bush had opposed a similar bill when he was President. This time the current President supported the bill.

I urge members on both sides of the aisle to act on this important civil rights issue by passing this legislation to protect all of our citizens from violent acts of intolerance – legislation that will enhance civil rights protections, while also protecting our freedom of speech and association. I also urge the Senate to work with my Administration to finalize this bill and to take swift action.

When the House met, Republican representative Virginia Foxx (NC) took a few minutes to speak about the bill on the House floor.

"The bill was named after a very unfortunate incident that happened, where a young man was killed, but we know that that young man was killed in the commitment of robbery,” Foxx said on the House floor. “It wasn't because he was gay. The bill was named for him, the hate-crimes bill was named for him, but it's, it's really a hoax, that that continues to be used as an excuse for passing these bills.”

The "unfortunate incident" she speaks of was the murder of Matthew Shepard.

Russell Arthur Henderson and Aaron James McKinney were both convicted of the murder of Matthew Shepard. Shortly after the murder, McKinney gave a statement to police:

...a statement McKinney gave to police just days after the killing, in which he referred to Shepard as a “faggot” and a “queer.”

McKinney's girlfriend at the time, Kristen Price, had this to say:

I don’t think it was a hate crime at all. I never did....They just wanted to beat him bad enough to teach him a lesson, not to come on to straight people, and don’t be aggressive about it anymore

So...it wasn't a hate crime. But they did want to "teach him a lesson" based on the fact that he was gay. If that isn't a crime based on hate, what exactly would make it a hate crime?

Regardless of what Congresswoman Foxx believes, Shepard's murder was a hate crime. Thankfully, this bill will address similar crimes and people in the LGBT community can take heart that the new administration cares more about them than the last one did.

The hate-crimes bill now moves to the Senate.