The Senate passed the Matthew Shepard Act which updates and expands the federal hate crimes laws to include bias motivated by violence based on a victim's sexual orientation, gender identity, gender, and disability.
By a vote of 60-39, the Senate ended a debate, conducted a voice vote, and attached it to an amendment to a Department of Defense Authorization Act.
Matthew Shepard's parents, founders of the Matthew Shepard Foundation, responded by noting they were humbled by the action on the part of the Government,
“Today’s Senate vote sends a bold and unmistakable message that violent crimes committed in the name of hate must end.”
“The Matthew Shepard Act is an essential step to erasing hate in America and we are humbled that it bears our son’s name. It has been almost nine years since Matthew was taken from us. This bill is a fitting tribute to his memory and to all of those who have lost their lives to hate.”
Matthew Shepard was a handsome young college student who was abducted, tortured, and left for dead (his broken body was tied to a fence for 18 hours) in Wyoming.
He died several days later.
Police say the motive for the crime was robbery.
But there was also evidence that the two thugs who committed this act were able to abduct Shepard by first posing as gay men.
The heinous crime caused controversy around the Nation.
In the wake of the brutal murder, liberal activists and interviewers on the morning news shows, teamed up to lay blame for the crime on the "Christian right."
According to one writer, Mona Charen, that this tactic was familiar did not make it any less outrageous or offensive.
She goes on to note that Gay-rights groups and their sympathizers in the broadcast media, seized upon the shocking murder to smear conservative Christians for creating a "climate of hate."
The reasoning behind this argument?
Apparently, a couple of months prior to the event, some conservative Christian groups had circulated print and television ads suggesting that it was possible to leave gay orientation behind, marry, and have children.
According to Family Research Council, one of the groups that sponsored the ads, thousands of men and women have successfully altered their sexual orientation.
The jury is still out on that!
The latest theory on "why gays are gay" suggests that birth order influences male sexual orientation.
According to new research by Anthony Bogaert, a psychologist at Brock University in Canada, gay men tend to have older brothers. Indeed, the more biological older brothers a man has, the greater his likelihood of being gay.
This leads Bogaert to conclude that a man's sexual orientation is influenced by the conditions in his mother's womb when he was a foetus; with successive male children triggering changes in the mother's body that increase the chances that subsequent male children will be gay.
This so-called fraternal gay birth effect creates a prenatal environment that fosters homosexuality in younger sons.
Intriguing theories!
Personally, I find another idea fascinating...whenever there is overpopulation in a species - it turns bisexual, or gay - to curb the problem.
Is man exempt from the laws of nature?
If the answer is no, perhaps the answers to "homosexuality" are waiting to be uncovered with expert research, here....
Henderson and McKinney, the young men who committed the murder, were not brought up on a hate crime, as no Wyoming criminal statute provided for such a charge.
The disturbing and brutal nature of Matthew Shepard's murder prompted calls for new legislation addressing hate crime, urged particularly by those who believed that Shepard was targeted on the basis of his sexual orientation.
As of that date, United States Federal law and Wyoming State law, dictated that crimes committed on the basis of sexual orientation were not prosecutable as hate crimes.
Therefore, in the following session of the Wyoming Legislature, a bill was introduced defining certain attacks motivated by victim identity as hate crimes, but the measure failed on a 30-30 tie in the Wyoming House of Representatives.
At the federal level, Bill Clinton renewed attempts to extend federal hate crime legislation to include gay and lesbian individuals, women, and people with disabilities.
These efforts were rejected by the United States House of Representatives in 1999.
In 2000, both houses of Congress passed such legislation, but it was stripped out in conference committee.
On March 20, 2007, the Matthew Shepard Act (HR 1592) was introduced as Federal bipartisan legislation in the U.S. Congress, sponsored by Democrat John Conyers with 171 co-sponsors.
Matthew's parents, Judy and Dennis, were present at the introduction ceremony.
The bill passed the House of Representatives on May 3, 2007.
Similar legislation passed in the Senate on September 27th, 2007.
It may be short-lived, however, since the White House has announced there will be a veto of the bill.
In the words of a White House spokesperson Dana Perino,
"We believe that local and State law enforcement agencies are effectively using their laws to the full extent that they can."
Can there ever be enough protection against Hate Crimes?
Maybe, when the senseless violence against individuals - gay, straight, or transgender - stops...
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