President Barack Obama on Wednesday signed the first major piece of federal gay rights legislation, a milestone that activists compared to the passage of 1960s civil rights legislation empowering blacks.
The new law adds acts of violence against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people to the list of federal hate crimes. Gay rights activists voiced hope that the Obama administration would advance more issues, including legislation to bar workplace discrimination, allow military service and recognize same-sex marriages.
“It’s kind of starting the conversation about the whole gay rights issue, the kind we want to have, in a positive light,” said Aimee Kanode, vice president of the interior for the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Alliance of Virginia Tech. “We needed this conversation to get started.”
Congress passed the hate crimes protections as an unlikely amendment to this year's Defense Authorization Act. Obama, speaking at an emotional evening reception with supporters of the legislation, said that more than 12,000 hate crimes had been reported the past decade based on sexual orientation.
He spoke of President Lyndon Johnson signing protections for blacks in the 1960s and said this was an extension of that work. "We must stand against crimes that are meant not only to break bones but to break spirits," Obama said. "No one in America should ever be afraid to walk down the street holding the hands of the person they love."
Susanna Rinehart is director of Education for Diversity and Inclusion, a part of the Office for Equity and Inclusion.
There was little public controversy with the Principles of Community when they came into effect in 2005, Rinhart said, but there was “some hesitation because Virginia Tech has a history of being more of a monocultural institution.”
“There were challenges,” Rinehart said. “I think because, homophobia is in many ways that our community struggles, there was some resistance at first.”
Legislation barring firms from firing employees on the basis of their sexual orientation could win passage in the House of Representatives by year's end, gay rights advocates said. More than half of U.S. states currently allow employers such freedom.
Obama has promised to push Congress to repeal the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy that prohibits being openly gay while serving. A Senate panel is expected to hold a hearing on that issue next month, and legislation could be debated next year.
Gay rights activists also hope for repeal next year of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, which would give federal legitimacy to gay marriages recorded in states that allow them.
The amendment signed into law Wednesday was named partly for Matthew Shepard, a 21-year-old student at the University of Wyoming who died after a 1998 beating targeting him because he was gay, and whose parents were instrumental in leading the fight for such legislation. The law also was named for James Byrd Jr., a black Texas man dragged to his death in a racially motivated killing the same year.
Rinehart had a personal experience with this issue. Just a few years after she came to Virginia Tech, Rinehart directed “The Laramie Project,” a play about the reaction to the Matthew Shepherd murder.
“To have had Matthew Shepard’s mother standing on the stage of Colonial Hall and talking about the murder of her son was profoundly affecting,” said Rinehart.
The measure also extends protections to those attacked because of their gender or disability.
Federal hate crimes law already covers race, religion and national origin. The new law strengthened it substantially, however, by removing a requirement that a victim must have been participating at the time of the assault in some federally protected activity, such as voting, for it to apply.
The Shepards' fight took a decade. With recent elections adding more lawmakers who are supportive of gay rights, by 2007 the Congress had sufficient votes to pass the legislation, but then-President George W. Bush indicated that he'd veto it.
Obama, campaigning last year, promised to sign it.
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States won't step in. This is just another example of the Federal Government far exceeding their boundaries. This should have never even made it into a bill to begin with and the fact that it was piggy-backed onto a Defense bill is disgraceful! 3 more years until Obama is out of office and only 1 more year until Pelosi, Reid and the rest of the hunchmen are out. But the question is, how long is it gonna take to overturn ALL of the wrongs they've done. The Dems attempt to blame Bush for the woes of the country yet they're only attempting to cover their rears. If you don't know, we've had a Democracte led Congress for anumber of years and they were the ones consistently pushing a liberal initiative. Educate yourself!
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Yea, cuz the federal government under Bush NEVER oversteps its bounds. Ha!
The left and the right may be on different sides of the coin...but its still the same coin.
Turn off Fauxnews (and CNN, MSNBC and any other MSM) and educate YOURself.
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You know, we'll never get out of the rut this country is in if people keep sarcastically referring to the Bush Administration. That's sort of like saying:
-"Obama got a 48 on his exam, ha ha."
-"Yeh well AT LEAST he's better than Bush who got a 29."
Guess what, they both fail
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