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hate crimes bill
Police: 7 Arrested in Brutal Anti-Gay Attacks in NYC
By Carl Franzen - AOL NewsNEW YORK (Oct. 8) -- Seven suspected members of a Bronx, N.Y., street gang have been arrested and charged with anti-gay hate crimes for sadistic sexual attacks on two 17-year-old boys, including one aspiring gang member, and a 30-year-old man, police say. The beatings -- which involved two episodes of sodomy, with a broom handle and bat, respectively -- were reportedly sparked after the suspects cornered the teen who wanted to join their gang (who they had already beat as a part of an initiation ritual) and tortured him further into revealing that he and the other teen had engaged in gay sex ...
Stonewall Inn Anti-Gay Beating: What Constitutes a Hate Crime?
By Paul Wachter - AOL News(Oct. 5) -- In the early hours of Sunday morning, two presumably straight men beat up a gay man in the bathroom of the Stonewall Inn, New York's most iconic gay bar, famed for the 1969 riots against police persecution that many credit with kicking off the modern gay rights movement. As the victim, Benjamin Carver, described the incident, his two attackers were in the bathroom when Carver went to relieve himself. One said, "Don't pee next to me, f-----," and they demanded money from Carver before attacking him. Matthew Francis and Christopher Orlando were promptly arrested and have been ...
Hate Crimes Spike: Religion, Race, Sexual Orientation Are Main Targets
By David Gibson - Politics DailyConservative religious leaders were some of the sharpest opponents of the federal legislation passed in October that expanded federal hate crimes law to include protections for homosexuals. But during the debate, none of them raised the idea of revoking the existing protections for religious victims under the law. And it seems unlikely that even those few religious leaders who think hate crimes laws are unnecessary would want to raise the subject now in light of new statistics showing attacks based on the religion of the victim rose nearly 9 percent in 2008 over the previous year. That is the ...
Senate Passes Bill Expanding Hate Crimes Law
By Christopher Weber - Politics DailyThe Senate has passed a bill that would expand hate crimes to include attacks based on a person's gender and sexual orientation. The Matthew Shepard & James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act passed on a 68-29 vote and will be sent to President Obama, who is expected to sign it. The House approved the bill earlier this month. The federal hate crimes law, passed in 1968 after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., covers people who are attacked because of their race, religion or national origin. There were 7,624 hate crimes in 2007, almost 17 percent of which were based on sexual ...
Is the Hate Crimes Bill Enough?
By Andrea Stone - AOL NewsWASHINGTON – As President Barack Obama waited for the nation's first federal civil rights law protecting gays and lesbians to reach his desk, the mother of the hate crime victim for whom it's named defended the administration against charges by some activists that he had forsaken their cause. "Obama is doing the best he can," said Judy Shepard, whose son, Matthew, was beaten senseless, tied to a fence and left for dead outside Laramie, Wyo., 11 years ago. "You can't just go in there and say, 'This is what we're going to get done.' Congress is busy with other things." Jemal ...
Lobbying a Hate Crimes Bill with Real Grassroots Activists
By Tommy Christopher - Politics DailyThe U.S. House of Representatives passed the Matthew Shepard Act this week, adding protections to existing law for victims of crimes based on the victim's actual or perceived gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability. The bill now goes to the Senate, where I spent the early part of this week. I followed a group of citizens who are trying to persuade their senators to support the inclusion of transgender people in the final bill. This isn't the kind of lobbying that has given this kind of work a bad name. These aren't well-funded corporate hacks trying to carve out a sweet deal ...
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