Causecast

by CLAIRE MORGENSTERN, Contributing Writer

More than a decade after the death of Matthew Shepard, the University of Wyoming student who was brutally murdered because his killers thought he was gay, the U.S. Senate finally voted last week to expand the definition of hate crimes. Under the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act, the new definition would be expanded from crimes motivated by race and religion to include sexual orientation, gender identity, and disability status.

The murder of Stephen Tyrone Jones, a black security guard at the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, by a white supremacist last month may have renewed Attorney General Eric Holder interest in the bill.

The bill would add another line of defense in the prosecution of hate crime cases by allowing the federal government to step in if local and state prosecutors are unsure of how to handle the case, or, in extreme cases, handling it unjustly.

Several versions of the bill have been introduced in the House and the Senate since 2001, the most recent of which was last April, but none have yet been voted into law. This ongoing debate over the bill demonstrates its controversial and bipartisan nature. Supporters, such as Senators Charles Schumer (D-NY) and Patrick Leahy (D-VT), of the new provisions argue that the change is long overdue and fundamentally essential to the well-being of the groups in question; while members of the opposition, which include Senators Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Tom Coburn (R-OK), and Jon Kyl (R-AZ) believe that the bill is unnecessary and that hate crime adjudications should be left up to individual states.

Ironically, some Republicans seem to be singing a different tune when it comes to the Senate’s next proposal, which would allow those permitted to possess concealed weapons in one state to carry the weapons across state borders. Apparently, that’s a “fundamental right.”

— Watch a webcast of the Senate hearing on the bill.

— Check out the Matthew Shepard Foundation’s Make a Difference page to learn how you can support gay rights.

— Donate to the USHMM Officer Johns Family Fund, which will benefit the fallen officer’s wife and children.