Wednesday, April 29, 2009

The House of Representatives passed the Hate Crimes Prevention Act. It now goes to the US Senate for a vote.

My sincere gratitude to all of you who made time to contact members of the House of Representatives. You made a difference.Today, they passed the bill. President Obama has made the following statement regarding this bill:

STATEMENT BY THE PRESIDENT ON H.R. 1913, THE LOCAL LAW ENFORCEMENT HATE CRIMES PREVENTION ACT OF 2009
This week, the House of Representatives is expected to consider H.R. 1913, the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009.  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.


I just watched a really powerful online video that I think you should see. Judy Shepard talks about losing her son Matthew to anti-gay hate violence and her ten-year fight for a federal hate crimes law that would honor his memory.
The right wing is spreading absurd lies, claiming it would send pastors to jail for giving anti-gay sermons. We need to fight back with the truth, and we don't have much time.

Please watch the video, write your senators, and then ask ten of your friends to do the same.




Thank you.

2 comments:

K said...

Will do, and keep on keeping on!

I just want to say that I admire your courage, and I hope you never lose heart. Love your blog, and I have a link to it over on my blog.

Steven said...

Thank you for keeping abreadst of the matter and forwarding the good news. It was a bit surprising to see that my Republican Representative (Mark Kirk) was a co-sponsor. Looking forward to my Senator to do the same!