Lawrence King, Steen Keith Fenrich, Allen R. Schindler, Brandon Teena, Charles Howard, Matthew Shepard…all victims of hate crimes. Why? They were murdered because they were LGBT. Currently U.S. law does not include sexual orientation or gender identity in the prosecution of a hate crime (Illinois has provisions for sexual orientation). We have the possibility of changing that on a national level with the “The Mathew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act.”
This bill has already passed the U.S. House but is now currently in the Senate waiting for a vote. It would send a message to all those perpetrators of the heinous crimes above, and numerous others, that extreme hate against LGBT individuals is NOT tolerated and will be prosecuted more stringently.
Senator Dick Durbin needs to hear this from you! Call him and tell him to pass the Mathew Shepard Hate Crimes bill, S.909 at 202-224-2152. Do it TODAY. If you are outside Illinois, you can call the Capitol switchboard and ask for your Senator at 202-224-3121 or use the online congressional directory – http://www.congress.org/congressorg/directory/congdir.tt
Our laws have to protect everyone and the reality is that people out there still persecute others and will even take that hate to murder because of race, religion, gender, sexual orientation and gender identity. Society needs fixing and this is a place to start – include LGBT individuals!
