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Hate crime bill veto is vowed
The House votes to expand the law for sexuality and gender bias. The White House says that's unnecessary.
By Richard Simon, Times Staff Writer
May 4, 2007

WASHINGTON — A long-stalled bill that would expand the federal hate crime law to cover violent acts based on a victim's gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability is headed for approval in the Democratic-controlled Congress but faces a White House veto threat.

The House on Thursday approved the measure, the first major expansion of the hate crime statute since it was enacted in 1968. Senate approval is expected soon, putting the controversial bill on the president's desk for the first time since it was proposed nearly a decade ago.

Under intense pressure from conservative religious organizations to derail the bill, the White House on Thursday called it "unnecessary and constitutionally questionable," issuing the latest in a string of veto threats aimed at the congressional Democratic majority.

The measure was spurred by a number of high-profile incidents, including the 1998 killing of Matthew Shepard, a gay college student who was brutally beaten in Wyoming and left to die tied to a fence.

The RR Fundie heretics are at it, again.
Please help send a message that hate is
not a family value.

Thank you for your help.

http://ga3.org/campaign/hatecrimes_supporters/id3e3u54v3j637e?

Recently, the House overwhelmingly passed the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act, a bill that promises to extend protection from violent or discriminatory acts of hate to gay and lesbian Americans.

Prominent leaders of the religious right have denounced this potentially life-saving legislation. Chuck Colson, Tony Perkins and James Dobson have waged a campaign describing hate crimes protections as an assault on their faith and values -- a campaign that has led President Bush to promise to veto the bill.