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A congressional conference committee has decided to delete a hate
crimes bill, known as the Mathew Shepard Act, from the defense
authorization legislation. The Mathew Shepard Act would have extended
hate crimes protections to people based on sexual orientation, gender,
gender identity, and disability. Conference committee members, who
were debating how to reconcile Senate and House versions of the defense
authorization bill, debated whether to include the hate crimes provision
in a final version of the bill based on a number of factors including
concern that including hate crimes would diminish the larger bill's
chance for passage, and concern that anti-war lawmakers did not want to
pit their anti-war and pro-gay positions against each other.
Read more here: And remember - you can still call your lawmakers
to tell them you want hate crimes protecting GLBT people to become part
of federal law! Thank you! |
