Yesterday, on Thursday, October 22, the U.S. Senate passed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act. The name of the Act is in honor of Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr., an African-American man who was dragged to death behind a pick-up truck in Texas in 1998. This Act serves as the first major federal civil rights law protecting lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people, which will protect them from violence and provide justice for the families of hate-crime victims. The bill will now go to the desk of President Obama for his signature. An article about the history and current status of the bill, as well as the perspectives of those that oppose it, is featured in The Washington Post.

By lesoltis
This entry was posted on Friday, October 23rd, 2009 at 8:03 am and is filed under Gender and LGBTQ Rights, lesoltis. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.