hate crimes

From Our Friends at Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund

Submitted by Ryan on Fri, 10/23/2009 - 2:21pm

We did it! We got hate crimes legislation through the House and Senate and the bill now sits upon President Obama's desk, ready for his signature. For the first time in this country's history, gender identity and expression is protected under US law. But the work does not stop here. We must continue to reach out to other communities and build strong alliances to further the success for all of our issues. And hate crimes legislation doesn't magically change the fact that hate crimes will occur for people of different sexual orientations and gender identities. This legislation simply provides additional redress against those who target us. But for now, let us revel in a win.

More from our friends at Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund:

Hate Crimes Bill Passes Congress

Submitted by Barbara on Thu, 10/22/2009 - 3:59pm

Just less than a month before the Transgender Day of Remembrance, a day that marks countless senseless deaths in our community, the US Senate has joined the US House of Representatives in passing the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Bill. The bill, an amendment to a military appropriations bill, passed the Senate 68-29. President Obama has already promised his signature on the bill.
Under the law, hate crimes based on sexual orientation and gender identity would be added to the statues that protect individuals against felonious attacks based on race, gender, or religion. The bill is the first-ever favorable Congressional action for the gender-identity community. The bill is named for Matthew Shepard, who was murdered in 1998 by a group of men in Wyoming because they believed he was gay.
A similar law was inserted into another military appropriations measure in 2007 that made it through a preliminary vote by the Congress. Then President, George W. Bush, threatened to veto the bill if it was not removed from the military appropriation. The amendment was subsequently removed.
For more information see http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/23/us/politics/23hate.html?hp

Can We Wipe the Mustard from this Sausage?

Submitted by Barbara on Sat, 07/18/2009 - 10:19am
I have been to a sausage factory in Milwaukee and watched them make my favorite German knockwurst. I have also been to Washington, DC, several times and watched Congress make laws. I’ve found that it’s best to watch Congress just before you are about to have a colonoscopy — when your digestive system is clear. 
That thought and others entered my mind last week as I watched deliberations on the Matthew Shepherd Act this week on my favorite porn channel, C-SPAN. Deliberations that included a consternating bid to ride the expansion of the national hate crimes bill out on a pork barrel fighter aircraft bill threatened with a presidential veto. Yes, the good news is that the attachment vote to the aircraft appropriations passed in the US Senate by a startling 63-28 vote. Hate Crimes legislation has already cleared the House.   But because of the threatened presidential veto against the aircraft, the passage might be in question. The White House, meanwhile, says it expects to sign the Matthew Shepherd Act into law sometime this year.
To understand how this works, you have to understand Congress as few people outside the DC beltway do.  It’s getting hot and humid in the nation’s capitol. They don’t call them Dog Day afternoons for nothing. The August recess approaches and our Congress has a lot on its supper dish. More than 50 million Americans await an opportunity to get health care, Trans folks — along with gays and lesbians — pray for an end to the reign of terror against them, and about 20 conservative Republican seek to stop the national scourge of man-animal hybrids. 
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