House Passes Federal Hate Crimes Legislation
The House of Representatives today passed the Defense Authorization Act of 2010 (H.R. 2467), which includes the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act -- the federal hate crimes legislation.
From what I've been reading, it looks likely the bill will be passed by the Senate next week.Autumn Sandeen
this has been a long struggle and maybe for the first time the end is in sight.
Autumn points out that the Senate is expected to pass the bill next week. it would be monumental if they were to do it on Monday, October 12th - the 11th anniversary of the death of Matthew Shepard, for whom the bill is named.
the first question that came to me is, "Will I feel any safer?"
i really don't know how to answer that. the bill makes harming anyone through hate a crime an illegal act punishable by lay. what it doesn't do is make people understand that doing such a thing is wrong, and it is wrong according to the religion(s) to which the majority of them belong.
of course, we will also be facing years of court case after court case that the christianists will pursue...
sorry, the cynic in me is always lurking. i am happy that this bill is moving forward to enactment and maybe, just maybe, it will save a Matthew Shepard's or Gwen Araujo's life in the future.
we can only hope...
No comments:
Post a Comment