President Obama is set to sign The Matthew Shepard/James Bryd Jr Hate Crimes Prevention Act into law this afternoon.
I was proud to announce last week that with a 68-29 vote the bill passed its final hurdle on its way to the Presidents desk. Today at 2:30 PM EDT President Obama will sign the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010 that includes the Hate Crimes Bill.
It has taken a long time for this bill to get passed, to finally offer Federal protection for those committing hate crimes against the LGBT community. It will amend the 1969 federal hate-crimes law to include crimes motivated by a victim's actual or perceived gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability; and of course some people are upset about it.
he American Family Association, based in Mississippi, released a press release warning Senators that voted for this bill will be remembered by pro-family voters when re-election time rolls around.
They even claim that this bill will make people's "thoughts" illegal...oh just read for yourself after the jump and get a giggle.
"It creates a kind of caste system in law enforcement, where the perverse thing is that people who engage in non-normative sexual behavior will have more legal protection than heterosexuals. This kind of inequality before the law is simply un-American.
"Worse, it creates possible scenarios where pastors can be sent to jail if their sermons on sexuality can be connected in even the remotest way to an act of violence. It threatens free speech and freedom of religion and is totally unacceptable."
Added Bryan Fischer, the AFA's director of issues analysis, "Despite the protests of homosexual activists, this is a communist-style law against politically-incorrect thoughts, since there are enhanced criminal penalties that aren't based on what somebody did but on what they were thinking at the time.
He must not have read the final bill because the wording was changed to protect the church/pastors/priests by protecting their speech and requiring action to be taken by the person being charged. They can still call us faggots and dykes and queers as much as they want from the pulpit and be protected, but not if they're beating us with a tire iron and using the same words.
Filed under: Community, LGBT Rightsry
Tags: hate crimes bill, matthew shepard, president obama, WBTD archives
