Hate Crimes // Current

Former evangelist: Religious right is ‘trawling for assassins’

MSNBC's Rachel Maddow is concerned that President Obama's trip abroad has served to... more

Vierotchka
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3 days ago
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6 comments

Murder Suspect Arrested in Puerto Rico Hate Crime, Confesses

This weekends brutal murder of 19 year old gay man, Jorge Steven López Mercado in... more

parisinla
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5 days ago
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6 comments

Gay Teen Found Dismembered, Burned, and Decapitated in Puerto Rico

Over the weekend the body of a 19 year old gay teen, George Steven Lopez Mercado, was... more

parisinla
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6 days ago
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2 comments

The WWJD Hate Crime Inciters are Getting Some Support for their DC "Protest"

I posted the rather unbelievable story last week that got a lot of you talking about... more

Waymon_Hudson
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10 days ago
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8 comments

WWJD? Incite Hate Crimes Against LGBT People, according to this "Pastor"

The furious explosion of nutjobs over the passage of the Matthew Shepard & James Byrd... more

Waymon_Hudson
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16 days ago
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1 comment

Outrage Over Gay Bar Raids

Two recent police raids of gay bars in Atlanta, Georgia and Fort Worth, Texas have... more

The_Global_Report
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18 days ago
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Obama signs Hate Crimes Prevention Act into law

Obama signs Hate Crimes Prevention Act into law. http://bit.ly/gtsKh President... more

locutus
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23 days ago
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4 comments

Synagogue shooting likely not Hate Crime...update

http://www.ktla.com/news/landing/ktla-noho-synagogue-shooting,0,5720530.story

vincius
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24 days ago
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Obama signs LGBT hate crimes bill into law

President Barack Obama on Wednesday signed the first major piece of federal gay rights legislation, a milestone that activists compared to the passage of 1960s civil-rights legislation empowering blacks.

The new law adds acts of violence against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people to the list of federal hate crimes. Gay-rights activists voiced hope that the Obama administration would advance more issues, including legislation to bar workplace discrimination, allow military service and recognize same-sex marriages.

Congress passed the hate crimes protections as an unlikely amendment to this year's Defense Authorization Act. Obama, speaking at an emotional evening reception with supporters of the legislation, said that more than 12,000 hate crimes had been reported the past decade based on sexual orientation.

The expanded federal hate crimes law was added to a $680 billion defense authorization bill that Obama signed at a packed White House ceremony.

The hate crimes measure was named for Matthew Shepard, a gay Wyoming teenager who died after being kidnapped and severely beaten in October 1998, and James Byrd Jr., an African-American man dragged to death in Texas the same year.

Shepard's mother, Judy, was among those at the ceremony that also included Vice President Joe Biden, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Attorney General Eric Holder and leading members of Congress and the Pentagon, who were on hand for the appropriations bill signing.

To loud applause, Obama hailed the hate crimes measure in the bill as a step toward change to "help protect our citizens from violence based on what they look like, who they love, how they pray."

He cited the work of the late Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts and others "to make this day possible."

Several religious groups have expressed concern that a hate crimes law could be used to criminalize conservative speech relating to subjects such as abortion or homosexuality. However, Holder has said that any federal hate-crimes law would be used only to prosecute violent acts based on bias, not to prosecute speech based on controversial racial or religious beliefs.

Former President George W. Bush had threatened to veto a similar measure, but Obama brought a reversal of that policy to the White House.

When the bill won final congressional approval last week, Human Rights Campaign president Joe Solmonese called the hate crimes measure "our nation's first major piece of civil rights legislation for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people."

Earlier this month, Obama told the Human Rights Campaign, the country's largest gay rights group, that the nation still needs to make significant changes to ensure equal rights for gays and lesbians.

More @ linkPresident Barack Obama on Wednesday signed the first major piece of federal gay rights... more